Across the Void
by Fullmetal Archer
Summary: My friends and I discover a world where alchemy reigns and equivalent exchange is the way of the world. Any guess as to what world that would be... A 'struggle' to get back home wrapped around a little romance, insanity and don't forget immaturity!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome to my revamp [of DOOM! of _Across the Void_! Yesh.. **

**... as before:**

**Anyway, Across the Void- This is generally something crazy I thought up at school and put into words. I haven't any idea where it is going, so... meh. I hope you like it, anyway :D**

**Parings: AlxOCSelene, EdxWin, RoyxRiza**

**Warnings: Slight spoilers for _Conqueror of Shambala. _Sumimasen!**

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**Across the Void- Chapter 1**

"We are now entering the airspace above Munich, Germany," the pilot announced through a crackle of static. "Strap yourselves in." The small jet shuddered in the turbulence and the creak of steel below indicated the beginnings of landing procedures.

"We'll be on the ground and facing customs in an hour," Sky, one of my best friends told me, referring to a small computer screen that displayed the flight plan, route and estimated arrival time. Stowing the delicate piece of equipment under the arm of the chair, she turned her attention back to a sketch the girl was presently fixing.

Katy, another of my best friends, snored from her seat in the front row. As the cabin was small, with only eight or so seats, we could afford to spread out and we were arranged so that we each had a column of seats each. I reached forward and shook the red-haired girl awake, then retrieved my hand before she could maul it.

Katy opened her eyes, dulled grey from electric blue by boredom and travel sickness.

"Merf," she said. "We still on this goddamned plane?"

"Nufin' wrong with my plane," Sky retorted. "Put your seatbelt on, woman, and go back to sleep."

Katy obliged and muttered, "Dunno why you even brought me along. I don't remember Germany-"

"So you've told us dozens of times," I butted in.

"-and I'd be a-"

"-'useless guide'. We know," Sky finished and smirked at the glare Katy directed at her. "Besides, I just _had_ to bring you along, Katy, my dear-"

"Don't you mean dragging me away from my library kicking and screaming?"

"Pfft," Sky replied. "You call that mountain of manga you have a library? Please, Katy." I didn't bother pointing out that Sky had overlooked the 'kicking and screaming' part.

"Nufin' wrong with my library!" Katy told Sky.

"Besides," Sky began, cutting off all retorts. "It wouldn't be a birthday without you, dearest. And I also can't count on Selene getting us through customs safely. Her Japanese is perfect, but she can't speak German."

"I can too!" I yelped, indignant. "I can say... good morning and goodbye!"

"Go on, then!" Katy challenged.

"Uh..." The damn words. They just didn't come.

"Exactly!" Sky crowed, triumphant.

"Well, my Mandarin Chinese is better than either of you," I huffed.

Sky shrugged. "So? Katy can speak German. We're going to _Germany_. I'll bet you won't be having any Chinese conversations here!"

"Baka," I muttered at her.

"I can understand _that_, you know." Sky didn't look up from her drawing. The entire circle was around about half a metre in diameter and the intricate patterns on the outer ring looked to be runes of some description. Each quadrant of the circle was perfectly symmetrical, the runes the exact size all the way around it. Looking at it now, it was a wonder how short a time it took Sky to craft it from scratch on some drafting paper.

"Hey... what is that supposed to be, exactly, anyway?"

"It's a transmutation circle."

"Which is... what, exactly?"

"I dunno. I saw it on television. Something to do with alchemy."

"Alchemy? You mean... like in _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_? Nicholas Flamel? That Swiss guy... Hohenheim something or other?"

"Yeah... that."

"What's it do?"

"I dunno! I just want to draw the damn thing 'cause it looked cool."

"Ouch. No need to bite my head off. Yeesh."

"Sorry, Selene. All this flying is getting to me."

"I can tell." Selene is me, by the way. Selene Yusheng. Born and raised to the old age of ten in China, then forced to move to Australia where I lived the rest of my life (another eleven years) being educated by people who did _not_ speak my native tongue. High school, which was a strange and rather creepy experience for me, was where I met Sky, the orphan daughter of two rich and, frankly, dead Japanese merchants and Katy, an English bookworm with a talent of learning and basically memorising three more languages in less than five years. She was now perfectly fluent in English, German, French and Japanese.

Sky was in charge of this escapade; her parents had left her a private jet, and she decided that she might as well use it. So in the space of a week, she had booked in a bunch of hotels all across Germany, explaining that she'd always wanted to go there, readied her private jet and given Katy a call in England so she could say goodbye to her extensive collection of manga and anime. She'd also dragged me along, saying that my early birthday present from her would be a visit to as many museums as I liked.

Here we were now, dead tired after a twenty four hour trip to England to pick up Katy, and then another four hour flight to Munich, from London. And as luck would have it, we'd been scheduled to land around the time a huge and random storm was due to hit.

A purple flash of lightning illuminated the cabin and Katy's head popped up over the seat, looking down onto Sky's drawing with interest.

"Transmutation circle... I've heard of them before. I've got a manga at home that I haven't read yet, with those in them. Something to do with metal and alchemy, if I remember correctly..."

Sky glanced up at her. "You happen to know how they work?"

"I've seen pictures. Touch your hands to them and they change the form of whatever you're trying to transmute. They channel energy."

"Though... that one looks more complicated than the ones I've seen. Maybe it does something different?"

"Maybe it can turn people into ferrets," I joked.

"Nah. You'd need something of equal value or some such random thing. Anyway, alchemy of the flesh is taboo. I think. Something like that. I can't remember, I've only read a few pages."

"I'll try it then!" I leant forward and touched my hands to the edges of the circle. Then I took them away and waved them in Katy's face. "Abracadabra, I turn you into a... penguin!"

Nothing happened.

"Well damn," I sighed, slumping back into the chair. "Didn't work."

Sky quirked an eyebrow at me. "Strange, that."

A surge of turbulence hit the plane, making it roll jerkily to the side. I clutched at the side of my seat, grumbling, and peered out the window.

"Uh... Selene?"

"What?" I asked, turning back to look at Sky. The 'transmutation' circle spread out in front of her was blue, glowing steadily brighter. "What the Hell?!"

"I think you activated it..."

"Well, that's a new development," Katy said, forever observant. A second surge of turbulence -or was it something worse?- hit us again and the plane was jolted upwards. The lights promptly went out.

"Um... now what?"

A flash of violent purple lightning shot past, residue sparks licking the underside of the plane. A shock travelled through the air and the plane turned into a steep dive.

Pressure built up, pushing down on us, making my nose bleed and Sky shriek in pain.

White light shone bright and then there was nothing. I heard a door creak open and I blacked out.

* * *

The search for the Philosopher's Stone, and then his brother was finally over. Alphonse Elric was content with spending his time eating, sleeping, alchemising things that needed fixing and ducking wrenches. And maybe deciding whether to try the State Alchemy Exam next year... He still wanted to fix his brother's body, after all.

But for now, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the world was good. The silence, only occasionally broken by a ticked off Winry chasing Ed around with a wrench, was blissful. And under his favourite willow tree where only the breeze disturbed the swaying branches, and where he had a perfect view of his surroundings and the river, was where Al was happy to sit until lunch was called.

It had been only a short while since both Ed and Al had returned to their home-world. In short, Earth had rejected them, like a living body would a foreign object like a thorn and the Gate had been forced to send them back.

The brothers had been 'ejected' into Central, and more precisely, into the military H.Q. during a formal assembly. Okay, so it wasn't really an assembly, it was a celebration held to honour the country's newly elected President, Roy Mustang.

Edward had landed directly _on_ his former boss, scaring the whole gathering into a chaotic form of retaliation towards the 'attack'. Eventually, everyone had calmed down and realised that the 'assassin' was actually just the former Fullmetal Alchemist who was also supposed to be _dead._ Then of course, Gate had spat out a taller and older Alphonse -who apparently was also supposedly dead- who was wondering what in the world (or two worlds, really) had happened.

A tearful reunion ensued. Which involved Roy having his nose broken for not keeping a hold on Al during the battle against the Germans -the little brother had to be kept safe at all costs, after all- and letting him go through the Gate after his big brother. Riza Hawkeye decided having a few rounds shot at Ed would make him shut up. Al then tackled his brother to the ground for being 'overprotective and selfish'.

Afterwards, while the brothers and Roy were having their aches, pains and bruises tended to, Ed reclined in his hospital chair and declared, "It's good to be back."

Al couldn't have agreed more.

Admittedly, Ed's view of life changed dramatically the very next day when Winry turned up and beat him to a bloody pulp for not only leaving her behind, but taking Al with him. Al then got a couple of dents and bruises when his friend turned on _him_ and beat him up for going along with his 'stupid, arrogant jerk of a brother'. She then dragged the brothers all the way back to Risembool by the backs of their coats -which Roy had told them looked funny- and told them to stay put for at least a year before even _thinking_ of rejoining the military.

Winry always _had_ seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do with life. At any rate, he was still only seventeen (though his mind told him he was twenty one) and wanted to slack off for a while before doing anything.

This brought him back to reality. Sitting under trees was exactly what he wanted to do right now.

"What'd I do _this_ time?!" The shout was forced, like it's owner was running.

"Ed!" The second voice, Winry's, was exasperated. "I told you, you didn't pack up your goddamn theories! I fell down the _stairs_ after I tripped over one of your books!"

"Sorry!" Both Ed and Winry ran into view, Winry hot the heels of Al's brother.

"That isn't good enough," the mechanic hollered. "You have an appointment with my wrench, you short alchemy freak!"

"I'm taller than you, machine junkie!"

Not answering, Winry pelted her wrench at Ed. It hit the alchemist dead-on, making him drop like a stone in a river. Al didn't fail to see the irony in it all; Ed had bought that wrench for her nearly seven years ago. Seven years of Ed-bashings with that one tool.

Satisfied her friend wasn't going to get up without help, Winry slowed to a halt and picked up her trusty wrench. Standing up, her pretty blue eyes sought out the younger brother. He waved to catch her attention.

"Lunch in five minutes," she yelled up the short rise. Al called back his thanks and pulled himself to his feet using a low-hanging branch. Time to go help his brother up.

It was truly a wonder Ed didn't have brain damage. The poor guy was hit at least twice a day with some sort of metal object, generally either a wrench, a handful of nuts and bolts, a screwdriver or -on the odd occasions he had his automail limbs detached- with a solid metal arm or leg. Maybe Ed was lucky and the projectiles always missed anything vitally important to his mental state. Or maybe he just had an incredibly _thick_ skull.

Either way, Ed was always in a sorry state when Al decided that he'd suffered enough and helped him stand and walk. This time, however, Ed was amazingly muddled; weaving on his feet, muttering strings of incoherent techno-babble and blinking like a thunderstricken deer.

"Al? Zat you?"

"Yes, brother, I'm here."

"Good. You hear that... that weird sound, right?"

This confused Al. He couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

"I think you're hearing things, Ed." He couldn't help but think that Winry had hit something important with her wrench. Ed proved this when he immediately sat down again, pulling Al down with him.

"Earthquake..." Ed muttered.

"Broth-" A shock jolted the ground, shaking it like a killer whale with its prey. Okay, so maybe Winry's hit had given Ed psychic powers. That was new. He'd have to document it when they got inside.

Ed jumped to his feet, again surprising his little brother. "Al, quick, the Gate, it's openi-"

A purple dashed with fiery red whirlpool formed in the sky, spinning into a vortex. Al's eyes widened; it was exactly like what he'd seen in Lior, rewind four years.

A craft, sleek and silver, like one of the rocket's of the other Al's design, shot through the vortex towards the ground, a wing on fire. The small rocket -hadn't Ed called something like that a 'plane'?- disappeared below the tree line only a few hundred metres away.

The resulting explosion and fireball from the crash echoed. Without so much as a whisper, the vortex closed itself up.

"C'mon, Al, we gotta see what it is!" Ed yelled, taking off in the direction of the forest. He realised he didn't really have a choice and followed.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello people! Sorry for the long while to update, but I've been struggling with another piece I'm writing. And this chapter is rather long, because I had a creative streak and didn't know when to stop. So, here it is… And this is all from my point of view, mainly because I didn't think Al's point of view would work for this chapter. Perhaps next time._

_Oh, yes and disclaimer! I solemnly swear that I do not own FMA._

_Also; I have decided to switch parings just a little. You see, I find Al just a little easier to work with. Al doesn't throw out insults about being short. -nods knowingly- And he's just damn huggable! -hugs Al-_

_Parings: Ed x OC- Sky, Al x OC-Selene, Roy x Riza_

_Spoilers; Not that I know of. If you find any, I give you permission to yell at me so I may fix them. Otherwise, it's changed because I didn't like the movie so it wouldn't spoil anyway._

_Hm. As this is much different to how I introduced chapter 1, I would like to blame all of it on my alter ego. She is an idiot._

_So. Without much more to say… Chapter 2!_

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_At least I'm alive…_ was the first thought that came to mind when I woke up. I knew this for a fact; I felt like I had been in a plane crash for God's sake! _Wait a minute… oh dear._

The last thing I remembered was blue lights on my arms, a scream and everything going black. Which is weird. I should, technically, be dead. _Apparently not._

Another whir of images struck me, and these were of what happened to Sky and Katy. _Crap!_

I sat up hastily, pushing the feeling of the sharp and pointy something jabbing into my right arm to the back of my mind. Smoke clouded everything and a few flames licked towards the sky here and there, resulting from the crash. Bits of metal where spread as far as I could see, which wasn't really far because of a large and too-close-for-comfort propeller obscuring my view. Summoning my voice, I yelled, "Sky? Katy? Anyone there! Help!"

Silence.

"Anyone?" My voice was fading to a whisper and despair started to overtake me. A wave of dizziness struck me. _Woah, must have hit my head too hard._ _This is_ not _good_. _Argh, what do I do!_ Putting my left hand up to my face, rubbing my temples, I started to lean back on my right. And promptly fell backwards. _What the hell!_

I looked down at my arm. Which… wasn't there. I stared disbelievingly. _Huh? It was there before. What's going on? What the hell happened?_

Blood was spattered all over my shirt, not to mention it was starting to congeal on the stump. I was amazed I didn't notice it was missing before. _Okay, it's final; I am _completely_ and _utterlyinsane

"For God's sake, will someone answer me!" I yelled, newly energised by the fact that I would probably bleed to death if I didn't get medical help soon. And God knows what had happened to the other two girls.

I opened my mouth to yell again, meanwhile struggling to stand upright when a voice, clearly an annoyed female, yelled out, "EDWARD, ALPHONSE, don't you DARE think of crossing that Gate AGAIN!" _What the hell is the 'gate'?_

Another voice yelled back, "Don't worry, Winry, we won't! Right, brother?" _Er… maybe we're in a rural area…_

It was soon joined by, "Shut up you lot! I thought I heard someone!" _Finally!_

"Don't you tell me to shut up, Edward Elric!" The girl seemingly named Winry roared.

The third voice, apparently this Edward person, yelled back, "Shut up Win! We won't cross the Gate, but there could be other people that did!" His voice turned dark. "And if the Gate was nice, they could be nearly dead!" _More about this 'gate'. Hm…_

"And we can't cross, Winry, it's closed already." _That voice must belong to 'Alphonse',_ I thought.

Edward yelled out, "Is anyone out there?" _Yeah huh._

A disgruntled sounding Winry muttered, seemingly to Alphonse, "And _he_ tells _us_ to shut up!"

"Over here," I yelled back, without thinking. Surely they wouldn't try to hurt us… I hoped.

The next thing I knew, a boy, of maybe fifteen with long dark blond hair (tied back in a braid), bangs either side of his face and grey green eyes was standing in front of me, a worried look on his face. "You must be the person that yelled out to brother, before. I'm Al. Alphonse Elric, formerly the Living Earth Alchemist. And you," he scrutinised my stump of an arm. "Need to have that cleaned and bandaged." With surprising strength, the kid lifted me up bridal style, careful not to bump my arm and carried me, red cloak fluttering out behind him, to where the girl that would have to Winry, was waiting. I, the whole while was wondering what in the world a 'living earth alchemist' was.

"Oh gods, are you okay?" the girl asked. She had lemon blond hair and pretty blue eyes, like Katy's but not as piercing. Al set me on my feet in front of her. I nodded and Al asked, "Were there any other people with you?" Then he looked a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, where have my manners gone? This is Winry Rockbell, automail mechanic, the best in Amestris! Winry this is…" He trailed off, the pink tinge on his cheeks becoming a bit more pronounced. _Where is Amestris?_

I smiled at him. Cute little kid. "I'm Selene. Selene Yusheng. I er.. I don't exactly have a profession as yet. And yes, there were three other people on board, two girls, one with red hair, one with black, and a pilot with grey hair."

Al nodded, seemingly glad that I had immediately got to the point rather than blubber like I suppose other people in a plane crash would have done. He stared out to the remains of the plane and squinted. "Oh, look. Seems brother has already found someone." How he could tell through all the haze and smoke, I would never know, but Al ran off to help Edward.

"So," Winry started softly, barely loud enough for me to hear. "Where are you from?"

"Uh, originally China, but now I live in Australia. We were only Germany on a whim, for a friend's birthday, so here we are. Well, I am."

"And a girl with black hair, it looks like, too…" Winry finished as the person who must be Edward came staggering through the remains, carrying a limp and bloodied up Sky. He was slightly shorter than Al, from what I could tell, and he had a lighter shade of blond for hair, but not quite as light as Winry's. Like an in-between, really. He looked maybe fourteen, so perhaps a bit younger than Al.

"Hello," Edward said cheerily as he came within earshot. "Two more to go, eh? I'd better go help Al." He dumped Sky at our feet and followed after his older brother.

Winry glared after him, and knelt to put Sky into a more comfortable position. "Alchemy freak," she muttered.

"Automail junky!" Came the sharp retort. _Now how did he hear _that

"So, Selene, where did you say you were from?"

"China. This is Sky, she's from Japan." I gestured to the heap of black clothing and blood. Thankfully, she wasn't missing any limbs. "And Katy, I hope she's alright, is from England." I grinned. "We're a diverse bunch."

Winry didn't return the grin. She frowned and looked a bit confused. "I've never heard of those places before… no, wait, I've heard of England. Ed told me something about it once. He said he had to go there when he was in the other…" she trailed off, a look of amazement coming across her features.

It was my turn to be confused. "The other…?" I left it hanging.

"You, wouldn't by any chance, happen to be from Earth, would you?"

_What a strange question to ask… _"Yes, where else would I be from?" I asked in return, deciding to humour her.

"Well, erm… we should wait until we get back to my place, we can patch you and your friends up and Ed and Al can explain everything."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Explain what?"

Winry grinned at me. "You'll see."

_Alrighty then._ Another wave of dizziness hit me. _Woah. Not again. Argh, blood loss._ "Er, Winry, do you think maybe you could help me bandage my arm up? Or, what's left of it?"

"Oh sorry! Yeah sure!" I instructed her to rip bits off my skirt, and helped hold them in place as I tried not to faint. Seriously, it _hurt._ And Winry seemed to know exactly what she was doing, padding and wadding the bits of material like it was second nature against the stump that was once my right arm. Good thing, too. I hate to think what it'd feel like with an amateur wrapping it up. Like me attempting, for one thing. Shudder.

Winry was just finishing the job when both Edward and Al arrived, carrying an unconscious Katy between them. The former looked from me to Winry before muttering to Al, "I'll take this one, you take the girl on the ground." His older brother nodded and eased the rest of Katy's weight onto Edward's shoulder. The kid grunted at the added effort needed and Al made the same sort of noise as he hefted Sky onto his own shoulder. Twisting so he could see me, Al asked, "Do you think you can walk without fainting?"

I nodded, "Yes, I'll be fine." I tried not to think of the amount of blood I had lost, nor the fact that Katy and Sky were both unconscious. We started our way towards what must be Winry's house, Al and Sky leading. Then it struck me, "Where's the pilot?"

"He was disintegrated when the plane exploded when it hit the ground," Edward replied shortly. Horror felt like a blow to the head. _What a horrible way to die…_

"Brother," Al scolded, turning so he could see us all and was walking backwards. "She was just in a plane crash, you could have at least broken the news a bit more gently."

"Al, it's always best to get to the point rather than dance around it," Edward replied.

"Sometimes it isn't," Winry piped up. "If it's amusing, it's fun to dance around for a little bit."

"Well, this wasn't fun, the man was freaking burned to a crisp!" _Looks like these three like to annoy each other._

"It's okay," I spoke up. I turned to Al. "Looks like your little brother was right this time round."

What happened next was… interesting. Edward turned a strange shade of red, Al matching. Winry seemed like she was about to burst into hysterical laughter. I looked from one to the other.

"What?"

"Well, you see, Selene," Winry started. "Ed is _Al's_ older brother. They're a year apart. Ed is just a midget."

"WHO ARE YOU CALL A SUPER SMALL MINUSCULE ANT WHO CAN ONLY BE SEEN IF AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPE IS USED!" Edward all but screamed.

"You did, you idiot," Winry yelled back at him. A wrench flew from somewhere and hit in the dead centre of Edward's forehead.

"WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO KILL ME!" Edward _did_ scream this time.

"I WILL WHEN YOU STOP OVERREACTING!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"FINE."

"FINE."

"Er…" Al started nervously. "Brother…"

"What is it, Al?"

"Brother, for one thing, you need to control your temper-" the boy quailed under Edward's evil glare. "- and you should introduce yourself to Selene."

Edward stayed stubbornly silent. _Seems he doesn't have any manners._

Al rolled his eyes, obviously starting to get annoyed with his brother. "Fine, _I _will then. Selene, this is Edward Elric, formerly the Fullmetal Alchemist. You can call him Ed, cause the rest of us do. And if you want to get his attention, just call him anything that implies that he is short. Brother, this is Selene Yusheng."

Ed muttered a brief 'hello'. Talk about mood swings. I swear he was happy just ten minutes ago. I twisted to get a better look at him. He was, as I said before, shorter than his brother and with lighter blond hair. What I found most interesting were his eyes. Nice gold, like his hair. He reminded me of a midget hawk. Hehe.

"Hm," I muttered. "How old are you guys?" _Weird thing to ask people you just met, really. Oh well, too late now._

Al smiled. He really was sweet. "Guess."

"Um, well, I don't know. I thought originally that you're about fifteen and Ed was fourteen, but now I know you're the younger brother, switch the numbers around? And Winry, are you about…" I squinted at her. "Nineteen?"

Ed made a strangled croaking noise. "Fifteen? _Fifteen!_"

"Er… yes," I replied, confused a little.

Al grinned broadly. "Am I really that small looking?" His brother nearly howled at that. "Selene, Ed is twenty three. Winry too."

_No way…_

"And that makes you twenty two?"

Al nodded happily. "Yep."

I was amazed. Really. "Bloody hell, I thought you were all _younger_ than me. Especially Ed," I added, just to annoy him. And it worked. Another strangled hiss. _Man, Ed and Sky would get along well. Muaha._ Al gave me a look. "Why, how old are you Selene?"

"Twenty one. Just." Al nodded. And for the record, I take back any mentioning's of Al being a kid on my part. Honest mistake. He was cute. As in little kid cute. I swear!

"So, Selene," Ed started. "How did you open the Gate?"

I blinked. "Huh?"

"Brother!" Al hissed. "What did I say-"

"Al, this is another time where it's a good idea to be blunt. So, Selene, do you have an answer for me?"

"What Gate?"

"Well, I want to know as alchemy is needed to open that Gate and I know for a fact that no one can use it on the other side."

_What in the world is he talking about? Waita minute… there's that word again. Alchemy._ "First of all, what's alchemy?"

Ed raised an eyebrow at me. "Alchemy. Equivalent exchange. Transmutation circle. Any of those ring a bell?"

I shook my head. _He must be insane._

Ed sighed. "Alchemy," he said, sounding all the world like he was trying to explain something very simple to a small child. "Alchemy is and I quote Al, 'a science where one understands the structure of an object, breaks it down and then rebuilds it. If used correctly, it can turn plain lead into gold.' Does _that_ sound familiar?"

Then it hit me. What Sky had said on the plane. Like _Harry Potter._ "Oh, you mean as in the Philosopher's Stone?"

A shocked silence met my question. Then Al managed to stutter, "How do you know about the Philosopher's stone!"

I was puzzled. All this over a fantasy tale? "I read about it. It's in a very famous book back home. Wait… surely you've heard of _Harry Potter_? It's almost as well known as the Bible. Was sure they'd have it printed in German! But… you speak English. Of course it's written in English!"

"Well, that proves something," Ed said to Al, who was still struggling to come to grips with my explanation.

"What brother?"

"She definitely isn't from around here."

"I know that!" I interrupted. "We only came to Germany for a holiday! I already told Winry I'm from Australia!"

Winry coughed softly. The three of us looked at her and Ed growled, seemingly warningly. "You see, Ed," Winry said softly. "Selene and her friends are from Earth."

"What and you three aren't?" I asked. _This is getting weird._

"So she _must _have opened the Gate!" Ed declared triumphantly.

"Brother, maybe it was an accident."

Ed all but snarled back, "Al, I was there for three years. If there had been a way back, I would have taken it, and there is _no way_ that any of the people on the other side could have opened it _by accident_!"

"But do you _know_ that, brother? I was there for a year or so too!"

"No, I don't know that!" _Well, that was a waste of rant._ I glanced at Winry. The girl was staring off into space. Apparently this type of debate was a normal occurrence. _And_ I was still confused. All this talk of another world!

"Maybe Selene can use alchemy, she doesn't know how!"

"But on the other side?"

"Anything is possible, brother!"

"Okay, we can settle this."

"Good idea, brother."

_Huh? Maybe they have a telepathic link or something._ _Hey look, there's the house. That was quick._ Without me really noticing, we had arrived at Winry's home. It was a two story cosy looking house, with a nice veranda and a great view of the surrounding area, which consisted of nothing but fields, a house in the far distance and a river running into the forest; where we had just come from.

Winry took over. "Okay you pair, before we go all alchemy geniuses, I want you two to take the two girls up to the guest bedrooms. I'll go over them for any serious cuts and bruises. Al, I want you to clean and heal Selene's arm a bit. If she wants, we can fix automail to it later, but it's her choice and I don't want her dying of blood poisoning beforehand. Ed, you can either help me or Al, otherwise just stay outta the way. Alright? Let's go!" Much to my amusement, both boys obeyed immediately, stumbling inside and up the stairs. Winry turned to me with a grin as we followed them inside. "They know that if they don't do what I say, they'll get a wrench to the head." _Oh, so _that's_ where the wrench came from before!_

"So, do you want a drink, or perhaps something to eat?"

"Um, I'm not really that hungry, but a glass of water would be nice, please." _And maybe a little bit of an explanation…_

Winry nodded and went bustling off to the kitchen. "You make yourself at home," she called and a clang of glassware was heard followed by the tap being turned on.

"Thank you," I called back. This room was nice. It was cosy, not to mention _huge_, and pictures decorated the small table to the left of the fireplace. Oddly, no television could be found. A little silver looking toy was on the window sill, half-concealed by yellow and blue curtains, and sitting next to a radio. Stray tools and metal bits and pieces were scattered everywhere.

"How are you feeling?" Winry asked, plonking herself down in an armchair, a glass in each hand.

"I'm good," I answered. It was strange. My missing the arm felt strange by not painful. And, by rights, it shouldn't really _feel_ anything at all. I supposed that would change once I tried to get the material off. Winry offered a glass and I automatically reached to take it in my right hand… before remembering it didn't exist anymore. I cringed, and reached back with my left hand. Taking it, I sipped on the cool liquid. It was soothing.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it," Ed's voice came from the doorway. I looked up to see he was lounging against the wall. Al had just walked in, dusting his hands off from some unknown task.

"Get used to what?" I asked.

"Having no right arm." He grinned. "At least you didn't have to learn to walk on automail. Though relearning how to use your hand is rather difficult," he added, almost as an afterthought. _Uhuh… and what is automail? Didn't Al say that's what Winry does? Automail…He speaks as if from experience._

"Try relearning how to walk, feel _and_ exist," Al retorted with a small chuckle. "Both girls are fine; except the girl with the black hair may have a concussion and they'll both have to recover from shock," he reported to Winry._ What did he mean in the first bit_? I wondered.

She nodded. "Thankfully. Okay Selene, we'll need to take a look at your arm, clean it and suchlike." I nodded. _This is gonna hurt…_

"I know this will probably sound really horrible to you, but if you don't do it, you could die. Seriously. Ed, out."

He didn't need to be told twice. Off Ed went, shutting the door behind him. "I'll be out the back with Den! And we'll explain everything later Selene," he called through the door.

"Righto! Selene, you know how Al told you he was the Living Earth Alchemist?" I nodded. "Well, that basically means-"

"I'm good with herbs and can even heal a bit. Humans and animals alike… but then again, humans _are_ animals so that sentence wasn't entirely accurate-"

"Yeah, Al, we get it." Winry cut him off before he could even start. I bit back a grin.

A thought occurred to me; "Al, if you're an alchemist, how come you can heal?"

"To be truly honest, I don't know. Brother said it might have something to do with my body maturing _inside_ the Gate. I may have picked up stray pieces of knowledge during my time there. I can't really remember though. But it is a definite possibility. I mean, Ed found out how to transmute-"

"Change objects," Winry chimed in, explaining the unfamiliar term.

"Yeah, transmute without a circle and he didn't even go inside the Gate. He just _saw_ what was inside."

"Uhuh… That made no sense whatsoever."

Al grinned, almost evilly at me. "You will understand someday."

"But someday isn't now, is it?"

"…Good point."

"AND meanwhile, the flesh around the remains of Selene's arm is starting to rot." Winry glared at Al.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted," she continued. "Selene, in order to have that arm fixed up you need to get rid of the shirt."

I gaped at her. "Why?"

"Because for one, it's already sticking to you and for another, loose fibres can get stuck in flesh and infect it. And it's a sleeved shirt. Even with no sleeves I'd have to ask you to take it off cause it'd get in Al's way." At Al's blush she backtracked. "I rephrase that; it'd get in the way of the healing process."

"So," Winry continued. "Off with the shirt, and when you have, lie on the couch. And make yourself comfortable, cause we may be here a while."

I made a slight gesture with my hand and Al turned around. "Thank you," I told him. I struggled to undo the buttons of my once lavender shirt. Now it was stained with blood and grime. Finally completing that task single handed, Winry help me pull the ruined cloth off, carefully so as not to touch my arm. Not that it really mattered, with all the bits of my skirt there.

Winry carefully folded the wrecked shirt up and put it in a plastic bag, motioning for me to lie on the couch. Timidly, I did as I was told, lying flat on my stomach, cushioning my head with my remaining arm. "No, Selene. Lie on you back. Trust me, you'll be more comfortable and when you relax you won't point your arm towards to floor."

Once again, I did as I was obliged. I felt extremely vulnerable, on my back with my stomach exposed. I stared up at the roof. It was a nice roof.

"Okay, Al, turn around now," Winry said, poking him slightly as she walked past. "I'm going to get some hot water and clean cloths. I'll be right back."

_Argh,_ I thought. _I'm stuck in a room by myself, no shirt on but thankfully a bra, am fairly vulnerable as I am missing a freaking _arm_ and with a guy who I just met. Even if he_ is _sweet…_

And as if it was just waiting to happen, my 'favourite' person, Awkward Silence strolled casually into the room.

* * *

_I liked that ending a bit more than the last chapter. Not really though. Meh. Constructive criticism is welcome and please don't hesitate to review. Tell me if you hate it or not!_

_Bye bye for now!_

_-blows kisses-_

_Fullmetal Archer_


	3. Chapter 3

Gomenasai for taking so long!! I blame Ed. -points accusingly at Ed- It's all his fault.

Ember: You're pointing at the wall.

Fate: -glare- So? I can imagine the pipsqueak is there!

Ember: -sigh- Some things never change… and yes, it is official! I am up to episode 35 in FMA. Stupid me, I downloaded Conqueror of Shamballa first so everything is stuffyfied. I hope I don't make that mistake again.

Fate: Yeah, yeah, shut up. People, enjoy chapter three. Woohoo. -waves little flag- Also, we would like to thank our first three reviewers XD. Thank you ever so much Retro Dreamer, Wandering Hitokiri and doubly thank you to Shiriko Matsuhisa. We loves yous ever so muchly. -glomps-

Ember: And we swear that we don't own FMA. If we did, what would be the point in writing fan fiction?

Al knelt down beside me and I looked up at him. I couldn't do much else as I was flat on my back and couldn't boost myself upright unless it was a life or death situation. Either way, I must have looked a little frightened because he smiled down at me, despite the concern sparkling in his eyes.

"You'll be fine, Selene. I promise I'll try not to hurt you too much."

I smiled back, weakly. I was by then really starting to feel the effects of blood loss. "Arigato…" I replied softly, not really realizing I was slipping into Japanese subconsciously. I guess that's what happens to you when you hang around Sky too much.

Speaking of which-

"Well, well, well," drawled said Japanese girl from the doorway. "Isn't this sweet?" I craned to see above the back of the couch, thinking, _she sure _sounds_ alright…_ My efforts at trying to sit up didn't go unnoticed because Al grabbed me carefully around the waist and heaved me into a sitting position. I nodded my thanks and, much to my amazement, I caught the hint of a blush on his cheeks. But before I had a chance to remark, however, Al stood and bowed to Sky.

"Hi. I'm Alphonse. Alphonse Elric. Pleased to meet you, miss Sky. I helped find you, Selene and that red-haired girl after you all crossed the Gate." He bowed again.

Sky raised an eyebrow at him. She _did_ look okay, especially as she had changed clothing so she didn't have a coating of blood on her clothes. "Gate, eh? Interesting. The red haired girl is Katy and it's nice to meet you too, Alphonse."

Al smiled cheerily. "Oh, please, call me Al."

"Okay then… Al. Tell me, if we're in Germany, how can you speak English so fluently?"

The smile faltered slightly. "Um, well, we should wait until we fix Selene up, Katy has woken up and brother gets back until explanations, is that okay?"

Sky smiled cheesily. "Sure."

Al gave a small gasp. "Oh my goodness, I forgot! How are you feeling, Sky? Do you have a headache? Because if you do I have something that will fix it right up in a jiffy! I mean, anyone would have a headache if they'd just suffered from concussion!"

I hid my smile behind my remaining hand. _Aw, he's so sweet… Gah! I didn't just think that._

Sky blinked. Several times. And then answered, "No, I'm all good thank you."

Al looked somewhat relieved when he answered, "Oh, that's good then!" The happy smile was back in place.

Sky stared at him just a little before asking, "Aren't you a little young to be a doctor?"

A yelp came from the kitchen followed by several curses and a yell of, "Al, help! I can't carry a tub of water, clean clothes and surgery equipment with only two hands you know!!" Splashing was heard followed by a screech of, "Edward! Get your butt in here and clean up the water!!"

Al winced and called as he was running towards the kitchen, "Sorry Winry! I should have offered." His call was backed up by Ed whining, "You messed it up, you clean it up!!" A heated argument ensued, following what sounded like a wrench hitting Ed on the head.

I winced. Sky gave me the eyebrow treatment. "So Selene," she asked, drawl back in place. "How did you end up needing to be 'fixed up' by a kid with intelligence and manners?" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her wording.

"He's a healer, of sorts, Sky. He isn't a kid, neither."

"What makes you say that? Is he an immortal or something? There is no way Al is over fifteen." _Not this again…_

I grinned. "He's twenty two."

"Yeah right."

"He is!"

"Okay, whatever. So, why do you need a 'healer of sorts' as you put it?"

"Because she has no right arm and she will bleed to death if I don't do something," Al replied for me as he came back into the room, lugging a bag of first aid stuff with several cloths slung over his shoulder. "And yes, I am twenty two." Sky blinked.

"What do you mean no right arm?" She practically jumped over the couch to take a look. And what she found made her gape disbelievingly. "Don't tell me that has something to do with the blue glowing circles."

It was Al's turn to gape. "Transmutation circles?" Sky started with surprise.

"Oh yeah! That's what they're called."

"Er… maybe we should continue this later," Al muttered as he eyed Winry coming through the door with a tub of hot water, red in the face from her face off with Ed. "And don't eat my pie!!" She yelled back to the kitchen. A mutter was her reply and she growled a little before shutting the door. Bustling over, Winry dumped the tub next to me before straightening and eying Sky.

"Hi."

Al jumped at introductions. "Winry, this is Sky. Sky, this is Winry. She's the best automail mechanic in the whole of Amestris! Brother said so once too, but it'd be like pulling teeth to get him to admit he did." Both Winry and Al grinned at that. Stubborn, annoying and short, that was Ed.

Sky nodded to the older girl. "Nice to meet you." Both returned greetings as Al plonked the kit and cloths next to the tub. "Lie back down," he instructed, and once again, I did as ordered.

"Okay, try not to move. It might help if you talk to us. It'll keep your mind off it," Al continued, kneeling once again down beside me, intent on my arm.

"Um, okay," I replied. "Er… Here's a question. I promise I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything, but how come you want to look after us?" I barely resisted the urge to add, 'Yeah, I mean, on our world they wouldn't give a damn if we lived or died' but decided against it.

Winry answered for me, as Al had fixed his attention on my arm. "Well, you see, for one, we can tell that you guys aren't from around here. You're polite." She grinned. "Al likes that. You're injured and would have died if we hadn't brought you back here. Connected to that would have to be you lot being lost and in shock from the crash."

"You came from the other side. Like we did, not long ago, and you would have been disorientated," Al added. I just caught myself before nodding my head. _I must have subconsciously accepted the fact that we aren't in Germany, _I thought, a little surprised. _I believed them and didn't even notice._

"And we, as a trio, like and trust you, even though we only met you maybe and hour ago," Winry finished. _Wow,_ I thought. _We were sooo lucky. I mean, for all we knew, we could have been picked up by axe murderers and wouldn't have noticed. _This took my respect of Al, Ed and Winry up a notch. _Who willingly lets injured strangers into their home at such short notice nowadays? _

"The only thing I ask for in return is," Al started. _Oh crap, we probably don't have the same type of money as them!_ "Is…" he left it hanging.

"Yes, Al?"

He grinned, somewhat sheepishly. "A hug!" _Oh gods…_ I grinned. "Certainly."

Winry had a troubled look on her face. Sky, who had been trying not to laugh at Al's deal, asked, "Is something wrong? We can go if you want us to."

Winry shook her head. "No, it's not that! Quite the opposite in fact." She gave a little laugh. "I was just thinking, since you three don't have anywhere to go, do you want to lodge here? We have a spare room as you know, and if worse comes to worst, we can always get Ed and Al to transmute another room for you. That is, unless _you_ don't want to."

I nearly sat up at that. All this hospitality! I don't think I had ever seen people with bigger hearts. I glanced at Sky out of the corner of my eye. She was just as shocked as me.

"I- er.. w-we don't want t-to be a burden," she stammered out. Winry waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, you won't be! All I ask is that you pull your weight around here every so often, is that okay?"

"Yes, of course it is!" I all but yelled out from the couch. "Thank you from the bottom of our hearts Winry. And I would hug you, but I can't for obvious reasons."

Winry chuckled at that. "You will, soon-ish. Which brings me to the question; would you like Al to heal you, or do you want me to install automail for you?"

Sky coughed. "Well, uh, what's automail?" Al pulled at piece of cloth that seemed to be stuck in my flesh and I nearly cried out. Wincing, he shushed me and patted me awkwardly on the head with one hand while trying to manoeuvre his fingers enough to pull it off without hurting me again. A few seconds later, the bloodied cloth was lying on the floor next to him and I was once again staring at the ceiling. Nice ceiling, as I mentioned before. A pretty shade of white, too; snow. I only caught the last half of Winry's answer because of that.

"-yeah, so they're basically metal prosthetic limbs." Winry had a look on her face that told me she would have gone into much greater detail but she would probably get scolded by Al if she did.

"'Cept a lot better than the ones on your side," Al added, squinting as he tried to pull out several stray threads with some tiny tweezers. The pile of bloodied cloths by his side was steadily growing higher, and I couldn't feel a thing! "Okay, Selene, two more bits," Al continued, a triumphant grin spreading across his face. It was followed by the not so happy proclamation of, "Ah crap, you're bleeding again." He quickly shoved some of the spare rags to the ground underneath my arm, hoping to catch the blood. "Oh, well, the good side is that the flowing blood should flush the dirt, threads and clots away."

"Uh, so Selene, what do you think?" Winry asked.

"That'd be great, thank you!"

Winry smirked, if only slightly. "You're going to get along _very_ well with Al, I can see," she replied, putting a slight emphasis on 'very'. "You both have manners!" Al's cheeks darkened a shade. This time, I was certain. What to do with this discovery, though, I hadn't the foggiest. _Er…_

"Okay, got it!" Al announced to the silence a couple of minutes later. "Now Selene, I need you to lie very still. Don't even speak, 'cause I could end up healing your arm to your chest by accident if you do." I blinked to show him I understood.

Winry sighed and Sky leant forward in anticipation. Al clapped his hands together and a pretty emerald light showed between them. Gently, he touched his fingertips to my open flesh. The light changed to a brighter white. Almost as quickly as it had started, the light faded. I felt myself yawn and vaguely saw Al smile down at me. His voice broke through to me. "She'll sleep for about three hours now. Is that enough time to do the first part of the automail operation, Winry?" The blonde nodded and she jumped up, calling for her grandmother.

Al's blurry face backed up by Sky's even blurrier one, entered my quickly diminishing field of vision. "Rest now, Selene," was the last thing I heard before drifting slowly into oblivion and beyond.

…

Al felt like hitting something. Yes, the mild tempered Alphonse Elric, the legendary Living Earth Alchemist, was annoyed. What was the world coming to?! Ahem. Anyway.

_Gah,_ he thought. _It's not like I would have been in the way!_ After sending Sky back to bed for rest, he had asked Winry ever so politely if he could watch the operation. He had gotten a wrench over the head for his troubles. Sore, and a little bit let down, he had wandered outside, back to his tree he had been busily sitting under before his brother's childish display only a couple of hours ago. And what had met him there? _Another_ childish display. From none other than Mister Serious himself, Edward Elric. _Ha, 'Mister Serious'. Yeah right._

_Jeez, all I did was look at her!_ Al thought, still steaming slightly. Sure, had looked at Selene, but what kind of person wouldn't? It wasn't like she was a basilisk or Medusa, both of whom would literally kill you if you looked at them. But, of course, as older brothers tended to do, Ed had launched into some childish song Al had dared not repeat even in his own mind in fear of being mistaken as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by accident because of it. Quite angry at his brother, Al had called him a garden gnome and had gotten a transmuted rock thrown at his head for his pains. Afterwards, Ed had stormed off in the direction of the crash, announcing he was going to look for something.

So, here he was, sitting by the river with only a couple of birds, the odd rabbit and a stray kitten for company, and it suited him just fine. Thoughts were always much better company than older brothers most of the time, anyway. Except, of course, when they turned on you. It was just confusing when they did so.

Take now, for instance. Al had simply introduced to himself the matter of whether he should have stayed and watched the operation, if Winry killed him with a wrench or not. That, of course, had somehow (Al didn't even know how) elevated into a full scale war with his conscience, debating the principals of right and wrong, good and evil. By the time dinner was called, he was completely confuzzled and had _the_ headache to end all headaches.

Grumbling something unintelligible, he stumbled inside the two story yellow house ahead of Ed, who was whistling and apparently happy, for a change. Maybe he had accomplished something. Dismissing this thought, and groping in his pocket, he produced a couple of painkillers to get rid of his headache and dry-swallowed them whole, not really caring that they tasted like cardboard. Not that he knew what cardboard tasted like. He left the kitten outside on the porch with the promise of a bowl of milk later.

Al practically fell into his seat at the dining table, next to Ed and opposite Winry. Auntie Pinako, Winry's grandmother was serving pieces of the pie Ed had been told not to eat earlier that afternoon. _My God, and he actually listened, too!_ Al thought, too brain-dead to even comment. Taking his plate, he neatly cut a piece of his pie and stuck it in his mouth. The flavour actually made him wake up a bit… or maybe it was just the pills taking effect.

Chewing gave him the chance to look around. Sky was awake again, looking refreshed after her nap and she was staring at Ed with a strange look on her face, and the red-haired girl, Katy, was awake, and happily engrossed in a conversation with Winry, apparently about automail. _Seems introductions have already been made._ Both Winry and her grandmother were looking a little tired, probably from the operation. It really drains one's strength; not just the patients', but the operators', too. Al took another bite of his pie, wondering on how Selene was doing.

A sharp jab in the ribs brought Al back to reality. Instinct made him immediately jab right back and he focused only to find Ed glaring at him while he was pointing his fork at Pinako who had apparently been talking to Al.

"Hmph," she said. "As I was saying Alphonse. Yes, you can go see Selene, but not until _after_ the dishes are washed. Am I clear?"

Al ducked his head, blushing at being caught fazed out and nodded. "Yes, Auntie." Winry, Sky and Ed were trying their hardest not to snigger. He shot the three of them a glare. _Grr… leave me alone!_ The two girls went back to their conversation as if nothing had happened and Ed just smirked at his little brother.

Five minutes later everyone was finished their first and only helping of pie. All except Ed who had only just finished his fourth slice and was starting his fifth. _Honestly,_ Al thought grumpily. _If he eats any faster, he'll inhale it._ Granny Pinako saved the last piece for Selene, grabbing it before Ed had inhaled his last bite. He grumbled and looked a bit put out until Winry announced that there would be ice cream for dessert if anyone wanted any. Al glanced at the clock on the wall. _About twenty minutes until Selene wakes up._ He couldn't help but feel just a little excited about that. Not that anyone cared. The girls were too busy gossiping about God-knows-what, Ed was daydreaming about ice-cream and Pinako had just grabbed her pipe for her evening walk.

Within another couple of minutes, Al was staring at an empty table. That is, not including the dirty plates. Not a sign of human life anywhere. Grumbling about inconsiderate people that didn't even offer to help, Al stacked the plates neatly and carried them to the kitchen, setting them down on the counter. Still grumbling, he filled the sink with hot water and added a soapy substance that made bubbles that were ever so fun to pop. It smelled like strawberries too; Al's favourite fruit. Inhaling deeply, Al sighed happily. It was summer, for god's sake. There was no excuse to be sulking. Whistling, he waited for the water to stop filling and quickly washed the dishes, finishing in record time. He was just drying off the pie plate when he heard a soft "hi Al" followed by a yawn.

Twisting on the spot, ready to clap his hands if need be, he came face to face with Selene, complete with automail arm and in fresh not-covered-in-blood clothes. _Wow… they attached it and she kept sleeping._

Shaking his thoughts free with a smile, Al asked, "How do you feel?"

She smiled back. "Different. Not bad, just different. And it's weird. It's strange seeing yourself touch something and not feeling it."

"It's even stranger existing and not feeling anything at all. Except the odd raw emotion or two," he blurted out without thinking.

She gave him a strange look. "What do you mean?"

Al sighed. This really wasn't a story he liked to tell. At all. _Okay, then give her the brief version. _He took a breath… and let it out. "When me and Ed were younger, our mother died. After our dad left us. We tried to bring Mom back to life using alchemy but we messed up. Ed lost his leg and I lost my entire body. In order to get me back, Ed gave up his arm in exchange and tied my soul to a suit of armour. We searched for so long, looking for the Philosopher's Stone, the stone that would restore us to our former selves." He grinned. "That's why we were surprised when you mentioned it; Ed, me and Roy Mustang, the Fuhrer and Ed's former boss only knew about it on this side." _Asides from the Homonculi…_ "But in the end, everything works around equivalent exchange. In order to get my body back, Ed gave up his life on this world. He got sent to yours. I searched for two years or so, but when I opened the Gate to get him back, everything went wrong and we both ended up over there. Well, to cut things short, we ended up back here. By accident, as it so happens, despite what Ed said before. Oh yeah, and when I got my body back, lucky me, I didn't remember a thing! I still can't remember everything. Only flashes. So, yeah, that's basically my life in a nutshell." _Slow down, mate! You didn't have to tell her all that, she just woke up for God's sake! _

"…"

Al grimaced. _Great, now she thinks I'm a raving lunatic like brother._

"Um, well, bad luck seems to like you two, huh?"

"You got that all in one."

…

_How can all that happen to two brothers in such a short space of time?!_ Was my first thought after hearing Al's little speech. My arm throbbed where Winry and Auntie Pinako (nice old woman, really) had installed the automail port for the detachable arm. But the actual arm felt really weird, as I had told Al. I found a note up on the bedside table telling me I had to guess how much pressure to apply to an object so I could manoeuvre it, plus a spare of Winry's shirts was on a chair in the corner. Needless to say, I found out the hard way anyway when I accidentally crushed the doorknob. Whoops. Making my way downstairs, I had seen absolutely _no_ _one_ anywhere. Then I heard whistling from the kitchen, probably whoever it was who was washing the dishes. Yawning and barely resisting the urge to gripe about my arm, I had stumbled into the kitchen to be met with the sight of Al whistling and dancing around with a drying cloth in one hand and a pie plate in the other.

Shaking my head to rid myself of the amusing images, I asked for something to eat, please. Al immediately grabbed a plate of pie from the fridge, and set it on the table, pulling a chair out for me.

"I'd refrain from substituting your left arm as your right for now. Just act as if you normally would, with a normal right arm. That way, you'll get used to using your automail faster," Al informed me as I sat down. He stared quizzically at the piece of pie before his eyes lit up. "I know!" Clapping his hands together, Al returned the pie to its normal heat, in the flash of an alchemic reaction.

"Thank you!" I replied to his gesture. Al beamed at me and sat down opposite.

I ate in silence for a few minutes, focusing on working my right hand and savouring the wonderful pie before several bangs and a grunt emitted from the porch. A slamming door signalled the arrival of someone and Ed stumbled into the kitchen, covered in soot. He smelled quite strongly of smoke, too. Flashing a triumphant grin at us, Ed dumped a familiar looking bag on the floor next to me.

"I found this among the wreckage. I didn't really look through it, because Winry would have attacked me with that god-damned wrench, but it seems to be okay. I managed to locate Sky and Katy's bags too, so that should satisfy them for a while." Said shorty grinned again at me before wandering outside again, hands in his pockets and whistling. Al stared after him, a small smirk on his lips.

"What?" I asked him before shoving another piece of pie in my mouth.

"Ed is happy. Which is strange, because he was grumpy and just plain annoying before you girls came today." Al grinned. "I was just about ready to thump him into next month. So, are you going to check your stuff?"

"Ahuh," I nodded, still chewing. I swallowed before saying, "Yes, as soon as I finish eating. And after I help you wash up."

Al shook his head. "No, you're the guest, and you just had an automail operation. You aren't doing anything even remotely like work."

"But I'm going to be living here for a bit, no? That means I have to help. Not only that, I _want_ to help."

Al sighed. "It seems as if you're as stubborn as Ed. Except he'd be stubborn about _not_ doing the dishes. Try not to get your automail wet, though. It could rust if Winry hasn't made your proper arm yet." He looked at it for a bit before saying, "Yeah, that's a spare. Win will probably pull an all-nighter to get your proper one up and going." At my horrified look, Al laughed. "Don't worry, she'll be fine, she does it all the time. So much that she's almost nocturnal, now that I think about," he added as an afterthought.

_This world is so different from ours,_ I thought as I stuffed the last piece in my mouth and handed my plate to the waiting Al. _People treat each other as human beings here and _do _things for one another. I suppose I shouldn't judge it from just here, because Winry's home is only one place, though._

I leant down and scooped up my bag. It was fairly big and I made sure I wouldn't be putting soot, ash and stray scraps on the table before placing it in front of me carefully. It was my proper suitcase, thankfully, as I hadn't needed a carry-on bag because the plane was Sky's, so maybe, if I was lucky, some of my clothes had survived.

Al came back in, drying his hands on the dishcloth as I was trying to open the zipper with my new hand. Not a good idea. The metal kept slipping on the zip and making this horrible screeching noise. It made me cringe. On my fifth or so go, I almost switched hands before remembering what Al had said before. Grumbling under my breath, I tried again and failed. I heard Al chuckle but didn't bother looking up until a pair of hands seized the offending zipper and opened it on the first go. I put on a peeved look at Al who chuckled again and seated himself next to me as he pushed the newly opened bag at me.

"You're doing well," he commented. "Not even Ed could do that much when he first got his limbs." _So that's why he was talking as if from experience!_

I grinned at him, thankful for the compliment as I sifted through the many random things in my suitcase. Remembering my laptop was still in there, I cringed. It was probably smashed. Along with my phone, my iPod, and several DVDs. _Crap…_

Not really considering that this world would probably _not_ have the same amount of random technology as ours did at that day and age, I yanked the laptop carrier out of the suitcase without ceremony, sat it on the table and carefully opened it. I gaped.

The laptop itself was fine, just a couple of the keys looked about bit skew if. Sighing with relief, I sat back in the chair. _Phew…_

"Thank God it isn't broken," I whispered, momentarily forgetting Al's presence by my side. That is, I forgot he was there until he gasped and half yelped, "What the hell is _that_?"

_Doops._ I mentally kicked myself.

"It's a laptop."

"A what?"

"A computer."

Al stared at the portable computer. I swear, had he looked any harder, he would've burnt a hole in it.

"But what does it do?" Several thoughts and ideas hit me at once. _I wonder if the Internet works over here._ Closely followed by, _If this is parallel Germany, then the power points should be the same, and we all have adaptors for charging stuff up. Hm…_

"It does several things."

"Like?" he prodded.

"I'll show you in a second, just let me check if anything else survived." It was rather sad; the laptop had survived, yet the pilot had not. Several moments of rummaging later and I was holding up my iPod, my phone and my collection of DVDs, the DVDs safe in a box of their own.

I quickly pressed the power button on the laptop before unclipping the iPod's cover to check if it was alright. Sure enough, it was fine. As were the DVDs. Unfortunately, my phone was not. At all. The screen was smashed and it was held together (the phone was flip-top) by only a few scattered wires. Completely and utterly stuffed. Yay. How that had broken while the laptop had survived was a complete mystery to me. My clothes were fine too, though one of my shirts was a little singed.

Al continued to stare at the laptop as it started up, making the odd whir of noise before falling silent. When the screen flashed to life, he almost fell off his chair. I laughed as he glared at it.

"You said you were over our side at some point, right?" I asked, trying to contain more giggles.

"Yeah, but they didn't have _anything_ like _this_!!"

"What did they have?" I asked, curious, despite myself.

A shadow seemed to creep onto Al's face. "Zeppelins and gas chambers," he answered shortly.

"_What_?" _Idiot! Thinks things through before you ask them!_ "Sorry, I heard you. Automatic reaction," I babbled quickly to mask my shock and to hopefully stop the look of obvious pain on Al's face.

"Automatic reaction to what?"

"You sounded like you were there during World War One."

"One? You mean there actually _was_ another war?"

I nodded, suddenly feeling sad. "Oh yes. A lot of them." Then it clicked. "What do you mean, another war? What year were you on our world?" Yep, I had definitely accepted the fact that I was on a parallel world.

"Well, the rebellion was in 1923, so 1923 to around about three quarters through 1924."

If I hadn't been sitting already, I would have done so at that discovery. _Time differences!!_

"Woah… Time passes waaay differently here," I said. Greatest understatement of the century. Or maybe last century.

Al's face lost its haunted look to curiosity. "How so?"

"When we crossed it was 2006."

"Oh you are kidding me!"

"No, I'm not. Where else would the laptop and iPod come from? And the broken phone, for that matter," I added.

The data had finally fully loaded on the laptop. It was my fault it was so slow, really. Me and all my files and junk and music. Dad always used to annoy me about that. The desktop display blinked into life, showing a random Evanescence wallpaper. Icons winked into being everywhere. Al, his end of the conversation forgotten, started gaping again.

I opened the Internet, not really expecting it to work. Imagine my happiness when it did, however. _Strange technology. Shouldn't work at all, there's no networks in range._ I wasn't really complaining though. If it worked, that was cool, cause I could show Al all sorts of things. Muaha.

"Well, what does it do?"

"All sorts of things."

"Like?" he prodded again. _Heh, déjà vu. _

"Well, I could look you up and see if our world has any files on you and Edward."

"Yeah okay!"

Big mistake.

I immediately typed in the 'Google' search engine. It flashed up pretty quickly. "Here," I offered to Al. "Type your and Ed's name in. Full name."

Al slowly typed in 'Alphonse and Edward Elric'. Taking over the touchpad again, I clicked search. While it was processing the request and loading, I explained to Al, "This is just the Internet. Just about anything and everything can be found on it and you can do just about anything on it. Like learn another language, go shopping for anything, make your own page about yourself or your own interests and all sorts of stuff. Don't be surprised if you come up."

The door closing told us that someone was back. Within seconds, my little laptop had Ed and Sky as an audience too.

"It survived, did it?" Sky asked, not really surprised to find me on my computer. "The Internet too, eh?" she sounded a little surprised.

"Yep," I replied to both questions as Ed asked Al in a hushed tone what the hell the light up box was. I grinned at his wording. Light up box. Ha.

The website finally popped up, showing the statistics of 189,000 hits for 'Alphonse and Edward Elric'. Shaking my head, I decide to annoy the pair by clicking 'images', to see what came up.

Without really looking to see what the first picture was actually of, I clicked on it, downloading it instantly. When the image was finally able to be viewed on screen, however, we _all_ gaped like goldfish out of water. There, on screen, were perfect anime representations of both Ed and Al and someone with black hair called Roy Mustang.

"What the hell…" Ed managed to sputter out. "The bastard Fuhrer too?" I think Al was too shocked to scold him for swearing.

"Quick, find out what it's from, Selene," Sky requested hastily. I skipped backwards and viewed under pictures until I found the words 'Hagane no Renkinjyutsushi' under a similar picture, obviously the name of the Japanese cartoon. "What does that mean, Sky?" I asked. My Japanese skills weren't as apt as hers, her having lived in Japan for ten years.

The girl looked stunned and I think her face drained of blood a little before she answered me. "Hagane no Renkinjyutsushi? That literally translates as 'Alchemist of Steel' but the English equivalent is 'Fullmetal Alchemist'."

-gasp- Never saw that one coming.

Ember: Shuddup.

Fate: Nyah. -pokes out tongue-

Ember: -donks Fate on the head with a strawberry scented rubber mallet- Reviews welcome, please.

Fate: -pouts and rubs sore head- Just so you know, the lights of human transmutation coming from upstairs is just a bunch of psycho lava lamps.

Ember: -glare-

Fate: -innocence- what?

Ember: -donks Fate again-

Fate: -pouts some more- and the Ed, Al and Winry look a likes running around in the basement are just… holograms. –cough-

Ember: Ignore her, she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Al: -wanders up stairs- -calls down- Brother, where are we?

Fate: -tugs at collar nervously-

Ember: XD ZOMG!! -faints-


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, this time I'm not blaming Ed. I'm blaming freakishly difficult and long exams! –points accusingly at freakishly difficult and long exams-

Ember: Okay, _this_ time, I agree with you!

Fate: ZOMG It's a miracle! Also a miracle; we finished FMA and the movie suddenly and randomly made sense!

Ember: -coughs professionally- It is my professional opinion that the movie needed to be longer –whine- and it also needed more of Al in it.

Fate: -rolls eyes-

Ember: -jabs with wrench- What?! He came in halfway through, damn it!

Fate: Oh shut up. Anyway, we don't own FMA. We swear.

Ember: Yes! Read on, pwease. And arigato gozaimasu to Retro Dreamer, Shiriko Matsuhisa, Wandering Hitokiri, Kawaii Tenshi(I know what your name means XD), Rikdo Osaka and Steel Man. We does loves you all.

"What the hell…" Ed repeated, clearly shocked. "What _is_ this thing, Selene?"

"Uh, the main information database in our world, to put it simply," I replied. "Wow, how did this happen?"

Sky shook her head. "Don't look at me. Scroll down a bit," she ordered, suddenly intent on the screen. "That one." A pale finger was pointed at another picture of Ed. I clicked on it, and when it showed, Ed screamed.

"What the f-" Ed's curse was cut off when Al slapped his hand across his older brother's mouth.

Al smirked. "Well, well, well, brother." Sky was smirking just as much as Al. I… well, stared a bit, then laughed.

"That's not right!!" Ed tore his face away from Al's hand, relaxed as it was from amusement. "Your world is full of sick bastards!!"

This time Al did whack his brother across the back of the head. "Brother, no swearing!"

"Sorry, Al." He didn't seem in the least bit sorry. Then he went the interesting red colour, like he did when I told them I thought Al was the older brother. "That is disgusting. Get it off before Winry comes back!!" He then glared at us. "It's not funny!"

"Who _is_ that?" Sky asked. The picture showed Ed and that other guy with the black hair, Roy Mustang in an… er… intimate embrace. To put it simply.

"That's the Fuhrer!" Al replied, now desperately trying to hold in giggles.

"Who?" Sky asked again.

"The Fuhrer is the political and military leader of a country. Like Hitler," I replied. Hey, I said I came to Germany for the history, so why wouldn't I know that sort of stuff? _I hope he isn't like Hitler, actually…_

"Oh…" came Sky's reply.

"Roy Mustang, Fuhrer of Amestris, also known as the Flame Alchemist, and no, he isn't like Hitler," Al managed to sputter out before he cracked up laughing. Ed was slowly turning from red to a dark purple.

"Okay, okay, you've had your laugh, can we look at something else now?" he whined.

"Alright then," I said to no one in particular. "Let's see what else we have here… hey look!" I pointed at a picture. "It's one of those pentacles… what was it you called it? A transmogification circle?"

Sky and Ed both rolled their eyes and corrected me, "Trans_mutation_ circle!" Al smirked a bit at the two of them. I clicked on the picture, muttering a soft, "Yeah, whatever."

When the picture showed, Al gasped, "Brother, isn't that a hu-"

"Yep, a human transmutation circle." He rounded on Sky and me, all worries about those… er pictures forgotten. "How the hell did your world get this?"

We both shrugged and Sky said quietly, "That's what I was drawing before we crossed." _Explanations must have been made when I was out, _I thought.

Al looked confused. "Who were you trying to bring back?"

"What?" we both asked in unison.

"A human transmutation circle is used when someone tries to bring someone else back to life. The results are quite often disastrous." _Yeah huh, like when they tried to bring their mother back,_ I thought.

Ed shook his head, a thoughtful look appearing across his features. "I don't think they were trying to bring anyone back, Al. Let's see. Sky, you drew that circle, right?" At Sky's nod, he continued, "And Selene, you touched it, right?" I nodded. "To open the Gate, you need a human transmutation circle with a few alterations. I'm guessing the circle wasn't exactly the same as the original."

Sky hesitantly nodded again. "Yeah, I made a few changes. I thought it looked better." She gave a weak sort of grin.

"Gods, what're the odds?" Ed asked the ceiling. "What're the odds to make a few changes to a damn circle, have someone with alchemy skills touch that circle near the Gate, open it without sacrificing someone _and_ survive? All on the _other_ side of the Gate?" _Ooh, does he mean I have alchemy skills? Note to self; ask Al about it later._

"I'd say next to impossible, brother," Al volunteered. "And I'd also say the ceiling won't answer you anytime soon."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Well, obviously Al."

"I was ju-"

"Hey you two, shush up! Ed, grab yourself a chair, and we'll find out where this whole thing came from, okay? Hey Selene, if it's a show, maybe you can download it," Sky added, pulling up a chair and plonking herself down on the other side of me.

I nodded. _Okay, go to whatsey, type 'Fullmetal Alchemist' load, load-hey! They have their own website!_

"According to this, there are fifty one episodes of said anime show 'Fullmetal Alchemist' and one movie. Called 'Conqueror of Shamballa'. Ring any bells you two? Well, doe- oh, so that's where uranium originates from! Bloody scientists from Earth taking all the credit."

During my quiet explanation cross ramble, I didn't really notice both Ed and Al were silent from shock. I did notice, however, when I glanced back. If we looked like fish out of water before, these two looked like whale sharks on a feeding frenzy.

Taking in the fact that both boys would be unable to answer for some time, Sky suggested we downloaded the first episode, 'One who challenges the Sun'. Doing just that, I minimised the window before twisting to look at Ed and Al. "What else did you want to know it can do?" I asked Al. The episode said it would take ten minutes or so to download, so I wanted to kill some time.

"Uh- well… I don't know, to be truly honest," Al replied, still sputtering from seeing himself as a cartoon on a website. A light seemed to dawn on his face. "What type of music do you guys have if you're from 2006?"

"_What?!_" yelped Ed.

"What, and you guys aren't?" asked Sky.

"No, we even if we have the same calendar and stuff as your world, Sky," Al answered. "The year we were dumped into when we were on your side about a month ago was… Heh, 1923. I'll bet the Gate had something to do with it."

"Holy hell," Sky and Ed muttered at the same time.

"You got that right," both Al and I muttered right back.

The front door once again slamming warned us of Winry and Katy coming back from Winry's work shed.

"So you had to do that to Selene?" Katy was asking Winry as the two came into sight. Winry started to answer before she stopped, gawking at the screen. Her eyes slowly started to sparkle with interest and excitement.

"What's that?"

Katy grinned; she had obviously gotten over her grumpiness after her sleep. "Hi everyone!" To Al, she bowed slightly before introducing herself. "I'm Katy. You must be Al. 'The polite one' was what Winry called you."

Al bowed awkwardly from his seat. "Hi!! I try to live up to Winry's standards." He flashed a grin at her.

"Well, what _is_ that thing?" Winry repeated her question. "Can I take it apart?" A gleam appeared in her eyes, replacing the sparkle.

Ed shook his head. "Don't let her touch it!" He glared at Winry before turning back to me. "You'll never get it back together and working properly again if you let her touch it!!"

The gleam in Winry's eyes darkened considerably as she eyed Ed. Before I could answer, a wrench slammed Ed around the back of his head. He slumped forward in his seat and would had gone headfirst into the table had Sky not grabbed the back of his collar, keeping him reasonably upright. "Pull up chairs you two, we're going to watch something quite interesting in a couple of minutes," she invited. As Winry and Katy rushed to do so, I pulled up a music file for Al. A random Evanescence song. I guess I don't need to tell you I'm a fan. As the song started up, a nice piano solo soon to be followed by electric guitars, I checked on the downloading episode. A minute and a half. Which was good; the faster we could see what it was about, the better.

Al started swaying from side to side, his equivalent, I suppose, of dancing sitting down. "This is nice!" he exclaimed. Winry was also watching the laptop. "Interesting music," she told me just as Ed started to wake up.

"Win!" he whined, rubbing the back of his head gingerly. "You didn't have to hit me over the head!!"

"Yeah I did, Ed." The evil glare the woman was giving him was enough to scare the pants off a rhinoceros. Not that rhinos have pants.

Ed winced. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry Win…"

"You'd better be, Ed, or else."

"Okay," I interrupted before the fight could elevate to the 'duck-for-cover' stage. "Time to watch the pretty screen." I turned the sound up and cancelled the song. Bringing the episode up and maximizing it so it filled the screen, Winry dimmed the light. _Haha this is fun! It's like staying up and watching movies at home! _I pressed play.

A dark room shadowed and surrounded by suits of armour flickered on screen, followed by the cartoon version of someone's hand. A small child, obviously Ed, set his chalk aside before turning to another boy. A startled gasp came from someone behind me, probably Winry.

"That oughta do it. You ready?"

"Uhuh…" replied a hesitant Al.

"Don't be scared, Al," his brother reassured him. "Everything's perfect."

The screen flickered to outside. Rain drops started falling, then poured down. The view skipped back to inside Ed and Al's home. Ed pulled a determined face. "Let's go for it." Al seemed slightly more confident when he replied, "Okay."

The two boys pressed both their hands to the chalked out very detailed circle. A golden glow started up and then spread high, sparking blue lightning.

A voice over, with, quite shockingly, Ed's voice but younger, started as the visuals kept coming. "Alchemy; the science of understanding the structure of matter, breaking it down, then reconstructing it as something else. It can even make gold from lead. But alchemy is science, so it must follow the natural law; to create, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principle of equivalent exchange."

"You can't bring back the dead," the Al sitting next to me breathed.

I nodded and the screen flashed red; the alchemic reaction had gone wrong. The younger version of Ed looked up, very worried all of a sudden. At the centre of the circle, where the ingredients for whatever the two boys were recreating were engulfed in a violent purple tornado.

The voice over continued, "But on that night, I learned the value of some things can't be measured on a simple scale."

The screen darkened. A long shot of the cartoon landscape flashed up, freezing just as a fork of purple lightning came down from the sky, striking a field nearby the house. A blood curdling scream shot from the speakers. The screen went dark as credits flashed up.

When the light returned, it showed a young girl with lemon blonde hair barging through her front door, closely followed by her grandmother and a dog with a metal front leg. "That was Edward!" she yelled, looking frightened and staring up the hill towards the home of Al and Ed. A loud and quite real gasp repeated behind me. I heard Winry ask Ed, "What the hell is this?!" No one answered.

"Wait Winry, look!" a little woman on screen ordered, though she looked a little frightened herself. The camera panned uphill, to show a man in a dark cloak standing in the rain.

"It's Mustang," Ed hissed as the voice over continued. "My brother and I knew the laws of science, of equivalent exchange, that gain required sacrifice, that something had to be taken from us, but we thought there was nothing more we could lose..." the voice-over Ed said. "We were wrong..."

It was back in the house. Smoke hissed from everywhere, blue lightning sparking up everywhere at random intervals. Ed's voice spoke in a pained whisper, "Al? Alphonse? Say something! Al... no! Stay with me!" The smoke cleared to find Al's empty clothing on the floor.

Ed continued, "Damn it, this wasn't supposed to... urgh... argh!! What have I done?!" The camera shifted to show Ed on his hands and… knee, panting. I felt a warm hand reach out and grasp my own tightly. I glanced over at Al. He had a terrified look on his face, but his eyes were glued to the screen.

The cartoon Ed gasped, and the screen angled towards the floor. Blood was spattered everywhere, mainly from Ed's missing left leg.

Ed slumped forward before looking up, almost hopefully. "Mum?"

The smoke cleared more. A pale arm reached up, and Ed's eyes widened.

"Mum, is that you?" The hand clasped to mine tightened, if it was possible. The hand on screen clawed at the air. Ed shrunk back from it, fear clearly defined on his face. A heartbeat thudded around the room, and a horribly deformed face mildly resembling a human gasped for air, its eyes glowing a bright fuchsia. The screen once again darkened and Ed screamed again.

Real life Ed poked me in the shoulder. "Selene, turn it off!" I did as ordered, quickly. Turning around, my hand still attached to Al's, I asked, rather stupidly, "Why?" The short alchemist didn't reply, but nodded towards Al.

He was visibly shaking, but the shivers didn't reach his hands. His eyes were wide, mouth open and his face was white. You'd think he'd just seen the dead come back to life, no pun intended. Without a word, Al wrenched his hand from mine, launched himself over the back of his chair and darted out the front door, into the night.

…

We sat there, kind of in shock for a few minutes before Ed shook his head.

"Al!" he yelled, launching himself up and over his own chair, chasing after his brother. The bang of the door slamming shut a second time made us four girls wince. Winry sighed. "We'd better go after them. Ed will never find Al. The kid's adapt at hiding in plain sight, like a cat. And I'll want an explanation later, if you lot wouldn't mind." She didn't seem even the least bit worried. Winry stood up, stretching. I stood and put my automail hand on her arm. "Don't worry about Al; I'll find him. It's my fault that he's upset, so it's only fair. And of course we'll tell you."

Winry nodded. "I'll find the alchemy midget." She turned to Katy and Sky. "Katy, you can come with me if you want to know more about how to attach the…" I kind of lost track of what she was saying because, whatever it was, it was extremely technical. Next thing I knew, I had shut off my computer subconsciously, wandered after the other three girls and we were outside, wandering down the dirt track towards the river.

The sun had almost finished setting. Its last rays of light were throwing thick ribbons of light and shadow across the countryside. The whole colourful and beautiful picture was just that; beautiful. The river shone silver, the trees were bathed in a reddish purple light. Pine trees, that is. I loved pine trees. Tall, majestic and… somewhat sad and foreboding. They always had an air of power about them.

Winry interrupted my musings by pointing in several directions very quickly. "Selene, Sky, I'm guessing Al would have gone that way. Katy, we're going this way cause Ed is as clueless in tracking as a city dweller."

We all nodded. "If we don't find them, we'll meet up back at my house at… nine o'clock. You got a watch?" Winry asked. I nodded again, showing her. The girl made a couple of pokes, prods and fixed the time all in the space of ten seconds. It now read seven fifteen rather than six fifteen. "There we are. Let's go." I grinned as both Winry and Katy walked off in the opposite direction; up the road. Both were discussing automail at a very fast pace. Sky stared after them a bit before shaking her head. "How 'bout we head towards the river?" she suggested. I didn't answer and just started walking. Sky had to jog to keep up.

"Why do you think he freaked out?" she asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"Because that five minutes of show brought back unwanted memories."

"… How do you know that?" Damn inevitable question.

"Al told me," I answered simply.

"Huh?"

I turned to her and said quietly, "Listen, when Ed and Al were little kids, their father left them and their mother died. They tried to bring her back. That's how it happened."

Sky's eyes widened.

"I'm guessing he 'freaked out', as you put it, because that particular part of his life wasn't remembered."

"How so?"

"Well, when he got his body back, he couldn't remember much."

"Oh…"

A few more minutes of walking.

"Hey, how about we split up, search opposite sides of the river?" Sky proposed.

"Yeah okay," I replied. _Yay, some time to think!_ "We'll meet back at the road."

Sky climbed a random tree and jumped to the other side. "Well, that settles who is going on what side," I joked. She grinned at me before setting off into the night. The sun was still lighting the sky reasonably well, and the full moon that was just rising was helping a lot. I set off in upriver.

_I wonder where Al could be, _I thought as I walked. _Maybe he just wants to be alone. Meh, by the time I find him he'll probably have been alone for a while... I wonder where he could be… Ah crap! I don't have a map or anything!! _Without thinking I pulled a hairpin from my pocket and used it to mark and 'x' on the nearest tree. Every few metres I marked another tree. Very original, but effective.

After fifteen or so minutes of wandering, marking trees, thinking and staring into space, I stumbled into a glade type place, where all the water seemed to stop. _Nice._ I walked straight into the middle and was stopped by a voice calling out-

"Watch out for that tree root Selene!" Too bad I took that next step subconsciously and landed on my face with stars dancing around my head anyway. "Mwarg…"

"Well, that'll teach you to watch where you're going, won't it silly?" Al's voice continued. I rolled over onto my back, moaning and twitching shamelessly, and looked around. _Huh, where is he?_

With a good amount of physical effort on my part, I managed to sit up, still moaning and twisted back and forth, wondering where the hell my healer had gone to.

"Up here," Al replied to my unspoken question. I looked up and, sure enough, there he was sitting on a low tree-branch, a ginger kitten cradled in his arms. "What're you doing up there?" I asked.

"Trying to forget," he replied, smile in place. The smile didn't reach his eyes, though, and that worried me. He made as if to get down and I shook my head, rising to my feet and ignoring the pains of a bump on the noggin'. "I'll come up."

I must say, trying to climb a tree, even a small one whilst trying to learn how to use an automail hand was a task and a half. I slipped and almost fell a grand total of eight times by the time I got to Al's branch. Finally, victorious, though a little scratched and bleeding in several places, I stretched out on what was left of the branch. The little kitten mewled at me; the whole time it had had its large jade coloured eyes trained on me.

"It sure is beautiful, huh?" Al asked softly, not looking away from the stars that could be seen clearly. It truly was a wondrous sight; one I had rarely seen before as I had lived close to town, where the lights reflecting on the atmosphere obscured the view.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Amazing" Then before I knew it, I was saying, well, stuttering, really, "Al, I'm sorry about the computer, the tellie show and everything. If I had known…"

Al gave a hollow laugh, the sound making me shiver inwardly. "Selene, you were just as shocked as I was when we found that out. You have no need to be apologising."

"But I-"

"No buts. It was… meant to be. Everything has a purpose. Remember that."

"Yessir."

Al finally turned to look at me, although the look was more a stare with one eyebrow raised. "I'm not a sir…"

I shrugged and he turned back to look at the sky. _Gah, I can sense awkward silence; here it comes… ah great. Quick, think of something Selene! Uh.. I don't know. Oh you are _hopeless_! Shuddup, you ain't much better! Argh, what do I do? _A random but relevant thought popped up. _He asked for a hug in exchange,_ _right? Give him one._

Without a second thought, which probably _would_ have been a good idea, I edged closer to Al and wrapped my arms around his waist. Obviously startled, the worst happened; Al fell out of the damn tree. Good thing was it was only a few feet and he landed on something soft. Bad thing was, the soft thing was _me_. _Very_ awkward.

"Al… I don't mean to sound rude but… get off me, please!"

He rolled off quickly, blushing furiously. "You were the one that hugged me."

"I didn't expect you to fall out of the tree!" I sat up, now thoroughly bruised, embarrassed _and_ dusty. Al was lying there, his face redder than Katy's hair. Slowly, he began to sit up.

"Yeah, well, you surprised me, is all."

"Okay then, now that I'm not in danger of getting squashed by a certain alchemist who fell out a tree because I _hugged_ him, how 'bout we try that again, hm?" Without waiting for an answer, I tackled him. It occurred to me that I was acting like someone who belonged in a mental institution. _Meh._

I expected Al to fight me off; I was surprised when he didn't. Instead he returned the favour. So, there we were, sitting in the middle of a glade, hugging. Very romantic. Cough.

…

_I wonder when they'll come back,_ Winry wondered. It was funny actually. She and Katy had found Ed within five minutes; unconscious next to a big willow tree. The midget hadn't been watching where in the world he was going and had run into it, effectively rendering himself unconscious. It took little more than another five minutes to drag said midget back to the house and set him on the couch. That's where she and Katy had been until Sky returned, half an hour later, grinning her head off.

Katy was a quick learner. She had come from a world where automail was like a fantasy of crazed scientists and yet she was grasping the topic more firmly than any of her apprentices had. And she had only woken up, what, four hours ago?

So they had been whispering over Ed's head about what type of oil was best for what, when the 'Japanese', as Selene called her, girl, had walked in through the front door.

"What's so funny?" Katy asked, curious.

"Good question," Sky replied, the grin still plastered apparently permanently across her face.

"And what's the answer?" Winry asked. _Aw, c'mon, tell!_

Sky shrugged. "I dunno." _Oh yeah, sure you don't._

"I can show you though," she continued, half cackling. The darkhaired girl took a small black device from her pocket. "The advantages of having a phone with no flash needed. And no sound." This time she really did cackle.

Winry stared. _Oh god I wanna take it apart!!_ Her mind whined. _You gotta let me… pleeeaase…_

"Look at this, gals." She yanked a cord from her pocket and attached one end to her phone and one to Selene's laptop. _Oh, what does that do?!_

Sky switched the computer on and accessed the phone device on the computer desktop. A bunch of pictures flashed up. The girl selected one and everyone gathered around.

"Aw, how sweet, eh?" Sky implored, the grin suddenly seeming wicked.

_Jeez, Al's never had a girlfriend! He meets Selene for five seconds and…_

Katy cackled just as evilly as Sky.

"Huh, what's going on?" a slightly sleepy voice asked from the couch. Winry tried to signal to Sky that showing that to Ed would make him freak out but she was too late. Sky plonked the computer down on Ed's lap and he stared blearily at the screen for a few seconds before his gold eyes widened as he registered what he was seeing.

"Is that _Al?!_"

_Sigh…_ "Yes, Ed."

"_Al _Al, as in _my _little brother?"

"Yes, Ed."

"And is that _Selene?_"

"_Yes,_ Ed." _Man he's slow._

"Al's with a girl, _alone_?"

"For god's sake Ed, yes!"

"Well it's about damn time!"

"Huh?"_ What did he just say?_

"I said it's about time, Win. Jeez, weren't you listening?"

"Ed, are you okay? Maybe you hit your head a little too hard." _He _has_ to have crazy brother syndrome or something._

…

"Yeah, we were screaming our heads off," Al told me. "I suppose it was worst when she screamed something to the effect of; 'I'm going to die!!'. Boy, did brother lose it then. That was the first time he performed alchemy without a circle. Heh, it was worth all the screaming and yelling in the end. When Elysia was born, it really opened our eyes to the normal world."

I grinned at Al. He was telling me about when one of their friend's daughter was born, when Ed was twelve and Al was eleven. The father, a man named Maes Hughes, had run off to get the doctor during a blizzard leaving Ed, Al and a young girl named Nina Tucker to look after his wife, Gracia. It was Ed's birthday, so they were around for a party when Gracia went into labour. What a nightmare. The memory was one of the few that Al could remember, he told me.

"Yeah, Elysia is now eleven. If you ever get a chance to meet Hughes, decline politely if he asks to show you a photo. He's an obsessed maniac when it comes to his daughter. And if he persists, run for it," Al warned me, laughing softly and shifting so he could get more comfortable against the root. We were under Al's favourite tree; a willow near the river and it had a splendid view of the sky if you sat in the right spot.

"I'll have to keep that in mind," I laughed then stopped as a scream, almost identical to the one that emitted from the cockpit before we crossed, cut through the night air. Both of us bolted upright; we'd been lying on the ground so as to get a better view.

"What was that?" we both asked each other simultaneously.

The scream repeated followed by, "Waaaahhhhh! Get it away from me!! You can't make me drink that poison!!"

I looked at Al. He rolled his eyes and laid back down, shutting his eyes with a sigh. "Don't worry, it's only brother. He dislikes milk." _'Dislikes' explains that as well as a breeze describes a hurricane._

"Argh! Get away from me. No! Katy, make them stop!! Engh, it tastes like vomit!! Win, don't make me…"

"Sounds like your friend Sky and Winry have him cornered," Al commented, his eyes still shut.

I stared as the short form of Ed shot into view, followed by the two slightly taller and more feminine forms of Sky and Winry. The light from the porch of Winry's house lit the area surrounding it just enough so I could tell the difference between the two girls by their hair. The two of them, much to my amusement chased Ed several times around the yard before backing him into a corner.

"No, but they have now," I told him, poking him gently. "Look."

Al moaned softly and blinked his eyes open again. "Don't wanna…" Rising slowly to a sitting position, he smirked and then laughed as he watched the scene being played out in front of us. "Poor brother." He grinned. "And to think, if he was any other guy, he'd be happy to have two girls chasing him. Too bad he's Ed through and through."

Al rose to his feet and held a hand out for me. I took it and he heaved me to my feet. "How's about we go help out poor Ed? Then we should get sleeping quarters ready for you." A calculating look shifted across Al's face as he contemplated what would be needed for that sort of feat. We started the walk up to the house.

"Let's see, Winry has some spare metal for a bed frame, there's a heap of firewood out back we can use for the room... uhh… shouldn't take that long to make…" he muttered subconsciously.

_I wonder… if I could help._ The thought hit me out of nowhere and I blinked when it occurred to me. "Hey Al, if I opened the Gate, as you call it, does that mean I can use alchemy?" It also occurred to me that Al hadn't let go of my hand as we walked. I blushed slightly.

"Hm… yeah I suppose you can. I don't know. If you still had your arm this afternoon brother would probably have worked you til you dropped, but under the circumstances, we'll have to find out tomorrow. As I said before, your proper arm should be ready to attach by then. It will be interesting to find out what your strength is."

"Heh, this reminds me of Harry Potter," I said, for the second time that day. When Al looked confused, I added, "Remember, I mentioned the book before; magic, alchemy and a Philosopher's Stone? I'll bet Sky or Katy has a copy in their bags or, if not, we'll download it so you can read it. It's a good story."

Al nodded. "Sounds like a good plan." A small figure dashed out of the shadows and crashed into Al. Both of them went tumbling to the ground and Al yelled, pain evident, "Brother, get off my back!!"

"Uh, sorry Al." Ed jumped up and took off again. Al moaned and grumbled something. Wordlessly I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to his feet. Dirt shadowed a good half of Al's face and he looked hilarious.

"Don't," he started, a glare coming into effect. "Laugh." That, of course, set me laughing like a witch from a kid's story. Al waited for a bit, tapping his foot impatiently before griping, "Okay, okay, you've had your laugh, can we go now?"

I continued to laugh, tears streaming down my face as we started off towards the house, Al still holding onto my flesh hand. That is, I was laughing until a strange and painful _ache _shot through my metal arm. How it shot through my _metal_ arm, I haven't any idea. I gasped, my eyes watering and Al immediately turned to watch my face as I scrunched it up in pain. "Ow…"

"Hell, you've got it already?" Al asked, knowing full well I wouldn't answer him. "And it isn't even the proper arm yet." He sounded worried.

"Al… what's wrong with it?" I managed to gasp out. My vision clouded and I felt light headed.

"It's called phantom limb pain. Generally people feel it if they lose a limb or- or something. Brother had it when he first got his automail. Apparently, it's entirely psychological." He now sounded entirely freaked out and it really didn't help much. "Winry!" he yelled. "Selene's got PLP!!"

"Well, bring her back inside before she faints, little brother!" Ed called from his hiding place, where ever that could be.

I gasped again, the 'non-existent' pain shooting through my arm and into my head. _Get it off!! _My mind screamed at me. _Aw man, _the small part of me that really hated life itself, whispered._ I really am much more trouble than I'm worth._

Not really the best thing to last think before sinking into oblivion, for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

Fate: Jeez, all you seem to do is eat, sleep or be a drama queen in this.

Ember: -staring at Al-who-just-came-out-of-the-basement-

Fate: Jeez, you only just noticed him there?! And you say _I'm _slow.

Ember: -babbles something random and not exactly English-

Fate: -sigh- -to Al- Hi, how ya doin'? –to readers- Reviews would be nice, if you please. And just so you all know, even if no one liked this to start with, I would keep going cause it's fun to write.

Al: Where are we?!

Ember: -still gaping wordlessly-

Fate: That's rude, you know. –jabs with wrench- My nightmares, where else?

Al: -blinks-

Fate: That basically means you're DOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMED I TELL YOU!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!! -coughs- I mean, see you all later.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, people! It's been too long! We've just completed the chapter, and now we have some idea as to where in particular this is going! Maybe...**

**Anyways, this chapter has a fair few spoilers after... episode twenty five, I think. Yeah. I think that's all we need to warn you about.**

**Disclaimer: We don't own FMA. If we did, we could do drawings that somewhat resemble fanart.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 5**

_Images flashed through my mind, appearing and disappearing faster than the rate I could understand them. A particular memory, for that's what I believed it to be, flashed before my eyes and stayed as it played out; a girl and a dog fused completely together, crying out in pain and anguish and an inhuman scream echoing around the alley as a dark-skinned man with a scar across his face splattered the deformed being against a wall._

"_Edward... my... friend..." _

"_NINA!!"_

_Horrified, I shifted to another vision; this was of a woman, another being fused with an animal, a snake, whispering something to an entity bound within a suit of armour. She managed to gasp out a secret before a man in military uniform sharply slid his sword under the suit's helm, killing the woman instantly. Blood seeped through the seams in the suit and onto the ground. I shook my non-existent head and cried out, wanting the pictures to end._

_A ten or eleven year old Edward nodded to his brother and smiled. They both pressed there hands to a large transmutation circle, maybe seven metres in diameter. Blue light erupted followed by gold lightning. It turned red..._ Hey,_ I thought._ This is what happened in the episode..._ The transmutation turned red, then a dark purple. A ten year old Alphonse screamed as the Gate disintegrated his body, sucking him in. Edward yelled out in reply, reaching out as a dark tentacle-like creature decomposed his leg._

"_Al...!"_

_A huge and dopey looking monster, white and spitting pink blood everywhere towered above two young boys, one dark haired and violet eyed, the other possibly a younger Alphonse. The monster dived towards the pair and Al clapped his hands, willing the circle under his feet to work. Red lightning lashed out and knocked him to the ground. The dark haired boy leapt at the oncoming creature as it dived. It sent him flying into the air and when he landed, he scrambled to reach the black circle on the ground. He punched an automail arm into the ground as the white monster launched at him, sinking his teeth into his sides, trying to bite the boy in half._

"_AL!! AL! TRANSMUTE ME!! IT'S THE ONLY WAY!!" Alphonse hesitated, trying to understand, before running at the monster, clapping his hands in the same moment. Light shone, and everything faded._

_A woman in a white dress, a red tattoo of a cross and serpent on her left collarbone stared kindly down at two young boys._

"_One is all and all is one."_

_The same woman, fighting a man that looked to be made of automail, he even had a cannon in his mouth. She dropped to her knees and prepared to transmute when she coughed, blood spraying everywhere. She collapsed._

_A woman with short dark brown hair, wearing a military uniform shifted form with a soft white glow, to leave another woman standing in her place, this one with light ginger hair and pretty aqua blue eyes. She was holding a pistol._

_She smiled cruelly at a man with glasses and olive eyes._

"_Perhaps this is a more fitting end." She pulled the trigger and he went down. Dead._

_A huge door, which I knew instantly to be the Gate, surrounded by endless light opened slowly and inside was oblivion, a void, filled with hungry violet eyes that watched my every move. Black hands, like tentacles reached for me and I screamed._

I sat bolt upright, sweating profusely. Gasping, I shook my head. The pain that was in my new arm was gone; I shook and clenched the metal fingers subconsciously in wonder. _What was that dream about?_

"_Truth…"_ a rasping, not-of-this-world voice sighed in my mind. Sitting up straighter, I stared wildly around the room, trying to locate the origin of the voice. I met nothing but the sight of a desk strewn in books that looked to be about alchemy, a wash bin, a cupboard, curtains that were blocking daylight effectively and a comfortable looking armchair that Ed was currently sleeping on. I blinked, registering that I was in either Ed or Al's room, because I was fairly certain that Winry wouldn't tolerate such a mess in her own room.

Ed snored lightly, enough to catch my attention, but not as loud as Katy's. Nowhere near as loud as Katy's. Katy's snoring could beat a chainsaw in a decibel competition any day. He squirmed around a bit, trying to get more comfortable, before finally settling half off the chair, his legs dangling over one arm of it.

"No, Al, we can't keep the cat…" Ed murmured and I grinned.

I don't know how long I sat there, wondering about my strange dream, and pondering what to do next. I ended up deciding to go find food. _Jeez, all you seem to do is eat and sleep, Selene!_ I slowly rose to a standing position, wobbling a little. _How long was I out?_ I asked myself. Unfortunately, I didn't have an answer for me. I made my way to the door, pausing every couple of steps due to dizziness and to stop myself from making any sound on the wooden floor.

Once again I was foiled by not watching where I was putting my feet. Half a second after taking a step, maybe a metre away from the door, and I was on my back with a sore head and a toy train was rolling away from me, as if slinking away so as not to be blamed.

_Evil train_, I thought, rolling over onto my stomach and trying to stop from myself yelling something random, preferably in another language, and waking Ed. The thud of me hitting the floor made him mumble something about 'stupid Homonculi' and 'that bastard colonel'. Satisfied I didn't wake him up, I rose to a kneeling position, and, too lazy to stand, I crawled the rest of the distance to the door and crept through the gap provided between it and its frame.

The light in the hallway made me squint, momentarily blinded. It was natural light, and by the looks of it, just before midday. Still too lazy to stand, I continued my crawl towards the stairs, not caring that I looked like a fool and only then realising I was in my pyjamas. _Aw, heck, who changed me?_

Lost along this train of thought, which, unluckily for me held endless possibilities, I ran headlong into someone's knees. Startled out of my reverie, I looked up on instinct, to find Katy peering down at me.

"Is it just me or are you getting stranger since we got here?"

"Thanks," I replied dryly.

"Welcome!" Katy told me, grinning and held out a hand. Without thinking, I held out my right arm and- _Oh! _I thought and studied the completed automail, admiring it from every angle._ This looks so cool! And I was stupid enough not to notice it before... _I mentally shook my head at myself.

Katy huffed. "Are you going to get up, or just sit in the hallway and admire you new arm for the rest of the day?"

I blinked up at her and smiled in what I hoped was a strange way. Katy rolled her eyes at me and I grinned, putting my flesh hand in hers and she heaved me to my feet.

"You've been asleep for three days," the red head informed me as we made our way downstairs.

I stopped and gaped, my mind reeling. "Three days?!"

"Yep. You were having nightmares the whole time. Winry decided you should stay in one of the boys' beds- not with them too, of course- but just so one of them could keep an eye you. Apparently Al and Ed went through the same thing when Ed got his automail, so they would know the difference between dreaming and hallucinating."

"Ack, I really am more trouble then I'm worth..." I moaned.

"Nah, you're not," Katy informed me. "According to Winry, PLP is normal for all automail recipients. We didn't mind watching you. Ed found it was more time for him to read, and Al likes you, so there was no problem there. Sky grumbled a bit until Ed described what the pain was like. After that, both me and her stuck to you like a burr."

"And you know what else?" Katy asked.

"What?"

"Well, since you and Sky have some sort of talent for alchemy, which comes from opening the Gate with just an A4 piece of paper, you get to be taught by Ed. And Winry reckons I'd be a talented mechanic!" A sparkle appeared in her eyes and I grinned at her.

"And you know what else?" Katy asked again. I rubbed a hand over my face. _I sure missed out on a lot while I was out..._

"You know how Ed is twenty three and Al's twenty two?" I nodded. "Well, Winry was telling me that Al's body is actually only seventeen, that's why he looked small, and dare I say cute. Ed's small cause he's a midget."

This caused the appearance of said alchemist from behind us.

"WHO DID YOU CALL A MIDGET SO SMALL A PROTOZOA WOULD HAVE TROUBLE SEEING HIM WITH AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPE?!"

Katy blinked. Then whispered to me, "He does that a lot. Just make sure to duck exactly six seconds after he-" she ducked and a fist swung over her head. "-six seconds after he rants." I nodded sagely in understanding.

"Selene," Ed said to me, randomly cheerful again. "How are you feeling?" Katy edged away at his tone and made for the back door.

"Uh... just fine, thank you."

"That's good. Oh look, here comes Al. Hide if you don't like tomato soup." I blinked after him as he ducked around a corner.

"But I like tomato-"

"You like tomato? That's good, because that's what Winry says you should eat the soup form for a while," Al told me, nodding enthusiastically. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small canister.

"I've been working on these for a while. You should take them for a few weeks; it will stop any random appearances of PLP. I hope," Al said, and passed me the canister. He smiled. "You're the first to try them. It shouldn't have many side effects, though you're hair might turn blue for a while." I stared and he chuckled. "That's what the original's did to Ed, anyway. He looked hilarious with his black clothes, red coat and blue hair. It made Winry nearly cry with laughter. I tried to fix them though."

"Thank you!" I grinned and hugged him. _Damn the cute teenager and his huggibleness_, I thought. Which was quickly followed by; _Wait...'huggibleness' isn't even a word!_ I mentally shrugged at myself.

"So," I asked, breaking away from the hug and sliding into a place at the kitchen table. "What have I missed?"

"Well, we watched more of the television show that's based on us," Al started, looking thoughtful. He wandered over to the cupboard and pulled out some bread and what looked like Nutella. Then he went to the refrigerator and grabbed out a jar of pickles and butter, setting the whole thing up on the bench. "After that... first bit, it actually got quite interesting. It was amazingly accurate too." He smiled. "It's you and your world I have to thank for remembering the brunt of my memories in a couple of days. I lost them a second time when we came back not long ago... Equivalent exchange."

I shrugged. "Gate, I guess? And as for thanking me, don't. It was Fate, I suppose. You can't argue with Fate."

"Tell me about it," Ed interrupted and walked back in. "It's worse than arguing with Pinako."

"Brother," Al scolded. "You were eavesdropping again, weren't you?"

Ed shrugged. "You don't learn anything if you don't listen in, Al." I thought struck me and I smirked.

"It's like you don't grow any taller if you don't drink your milk," I supplied. Al stared at me like I was insane before he broke into a smirk. Ed, of course, exploded.

"WHY WOULD WANT TO DRINK THAT STUFF?! I WOULD RATHER _NOT_ DINK EXCREMENTS FROM A COW, THANK YOU _VERY_ MUCH! AND YOU DON'T GROW TALLER JUST BY DRINKING THAT DAMN FLUID!!!!! I DON'T NEED TO GROW TALLER ANYWAYS!!!!" he yelled, loud enough that I thought for a moment that the roof was levitating.

"You two are against me!" Ed screeched, pointing an accusatory automail finger at his brother and then at me. "I won't fall for your evil plans! I know where you sleep!" A rather stupid threat, as we knew exactly the same of him, but Ed took the time to give a triumphant cackle before stalking off.

"That was completely random," I told Al, and he grinned, continuing to smear the butter on the ten or so pieces of bread.

"Welcome to my life," he said dryly, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"You know," Al continued once I had settled down a enough to breathe properly. "Once you're better, of course, the Fuhrer would like to meet you, Katy and Sky. He rang a couple of days ago. I was forced to explain since Sky answered the phone. Brother was grumbling too much about him ringing us to say much." He put on a high pitched voice; a not very accurate but funny interpretation of Ed: "What's that bastard doing calling here for? I told him we weren't going to become his dogs again. Rant, rant, rant."

"Count me in for that trip," Sky announced as she came into the kitchen from the back door, cutting Al's imitation short. "This country is really beautiful, I'd like to see more. Plus I'd like to meet the man that gets Ed all worked up. Maybe we'd make a great team..."

Al sighed and said woefully, "You can't have a normal conversation anymore without someone overhearing you."

"Yeah, that normally happens when you turn adult," Sky told him, equally woefully. "It gets worse when you get married, apparently."

Al shrugged. "Marriage I wouldn't mind at all. It's just _Ed_ that gets to you." He finished off a sandwich, put it on a plate that had been left to dry on the drainer and passed the complete set to Sky.

"That's what you get when you have a brother," Sky said. "I don't have that problem; I just have two almost sisters." I grinned at her.

"Well, I have a blood brother and an almost sister," Al said. "Fresh orange juice is in the fridge."

"Thank you," she told him and grabbed a glass from a cupboard, heading for the fridge in the same movement.

"Pick me too, please," I asked and Sky obligingly grabbed a second glass.

"What did your last slave die of?" She asked me, grinning.

"Oh, she hasn't died yet," I answered on cue and we both cackled. Al glanced back and forth between us, smiling, but looking a little puzzled. Sky shrugged in an answer to him and poured the two cups. "You want some, Al?"

He shook his head. "No, thank you."

"I do, so don't put it away," ordered Winry as she came into the kitchen, falling down in a seat across the table, trailed by Katy, who snatched the seat next to the counter. "I feel dead," Winry groaned and stretched. Then she grinned and grabbed my metal arm, fixing me with a warning glare.

"You scratch this, I wrench you. You _break_ this, I wrench you til you see black." I nodded dumbly and Winry released my arm. No one would want to argue with that look.

Well, no one _sane_ anyway. "What she means is she'll chase you around the house until the wrench knocks you out, or you can no longer breathe through your nose," Ed explained, apparently calmed down from his spaz attack on the subject of milk. He tottered around the table and flopped into the only available seat next to Winry. He grinned innocently at her. Winry smiled back. Then with lightning fast speed, Winry's wrench greeted Ed for the first time since I had been awake with a sickening crunch.

He slumped to the floor. Al sighed a little and stepped over his brother, precariously balancing several plates in his hands and one on his head. After setting them on the table, he took Ed's vacated spot.

"Your soup is almost ready," he informed me, and passed out sandwiches, kindly keeping one for his brother when the man woke up with a concussion. Poor guy. It was a wonder he didn't have brain damage. Or maybe he did. It would explain a lot.

"Thank you," I replied and winced when my stomach growled audibly. Al chuckled a bit and nudged Ed with his foot. The blond didn't budge.

"You managed to kill him this time, Win," Al told her and Winry shrugged.

"He deserved it."

I shivered. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Winry flashed me a grin. "You'll know when you do."

Al leaned towards me and whispered conspiratorially, "I think Ed just annoys her because he's too afraid to voice any of his feelings about to her." I, meanwhile, had lifted the cup of juice to my lips and choked on the liquid. Trying to disguise laughter by coughing is impossible; don't try it.

Winry's eye twitched. "What was that, Al?"

Al blinked at her. I had to stop from laughing again. Innocence was definitely a strong trait of his. "What do you mean, Winry? I didn't say anything."

Winry snapped around to look at me. "Selene, what did he say?" There was a mad sparkle in the mechanic's eyes. And she looked scary.

"Uh... Al said... Um, Ed's insane and has a death wish!" Winry sat back and smiled. The crazy sparkle had disappeared.

"Oh, okay then." I dared glance at Al. He mouthed a thank you.

"Ow... my head..." Ed sat up with a grunt.

"Your skull really is thicker than what we all originally thought, brother," Al told him. "We've still yet to determine whether that it is a good or bad thing."

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Very funny Al. A regular comedian." He rubbed the rising bump on his head. "Get me an aspirin, would you?"

"No. Get it yourself."

"But Allll..."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you need to learn to do things for yourself, brother." Winry sighed and rolled her eyes. She finished off her sandwich and headed outside, beckoning to Katy as she did. The red head followed quickly.

"Since when have you suddenly become so evil, Al? Oh, I know. You're trying to impress someone. It wouldn't work if you were helping your injured and head sore brother, would it?" Ed's tone had turned evil.

Al glared at the midget on the floor, but he was blushing at the same time. "Brother, give it up and get an aspirin yourself!" Just then a small white and ginger kitten toddled into the kitchen and went straight up to Al. The cute little thing pawed at his leg and meowed.

"Hi, Duchess. You want some milk?" Al asked it, his face losing its crimson hue and his mouth forming into a small smile. The kitten mewled an affirmative. And the phone rang.

"I'll get it," Al sighed, sidestepping 'Duchess' and grabbing the phone off its cradle in one smooth movement.

"Rockbell Automail, Alphonse speaking, how may I help you?" Al's eyes lit up in recognition. "Fuhrer, sir! Yes, it's nice to talk to you too. Why are you calling again so soon, sir? You know brother doesn't li- Wait, say again?! You're joking, right, sir? Has Hughes got anything to do with this? No? Ed, get up now, you've _got_ to hear this!!"

Ed stumbled to his feet and took the phone. After listening for a few seconds, his eyes went wide and he laughed.

"AHA! I was right!! Tell Havoc he owes me! Bwaha, I am now five hundred bucks richer!" Al elbowed him. "Ah, right, I suppose a 'congratulations' would be in order. I'll go tell Win. And yes, we'll come."

Sky looked up from her orange juice. "Something good happen?"

Al sparkled. "The Fuhrer and Hawkeye are getting married! I love weddings!"

Ed nodded absently at the phone. "Yes, we'll leave in two days. Okay, okay! I'll go get Winry _now_ if it's so important to Hawk- Tough luck, Flamey, you can't get me from here. Yeah, I'd like to see you try. I'd kick your ass like I did when I was fifteen. I dunno what she even sees in you, all I see is an old egotistical bastard with an eye patch."

The shriek of, "FULLMETAL, YOU SHORT BRAT!" could be heard from the hills all around.

Ed held the phone away from his ear. "Oi, Sky, go get Win, would ya?"

"She's _your _girlfriend, Ed." Nonetheless, Sky slowly got to her feet and headed out the door.

A second shriek, this one a triumphant "HA!" was heard on the other end of the line.

"You shut up, Flamey!!" Ed screeched back.

Al muttered something about over reactive short brothers and got the milk carton out of the fridge, pouring some into a saucer and setting it on the floor. Duchess bounded up to her milk and started to lap at it happily, just as Ed screamed a long stream of profanities into the phone and slammed it down onto the bench. Off stormed the alchemist, out the doorway, past a bewildered Katy and Winry and onto the porch. I blinked after him, and sipped my juice.

"It'll be Hawkeye," Al said in answer to Winry's questioning look.

Two seconds later: "OH MY GOD, RIZA, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!??!?!" Much squeeing and wooting on Winry's part, followed.

Al sat down again. "Sky, Selene, we'll be leaving in two days by the sounds of it. Brother and I will start your basic alchemy training after dinner, okay?"

"Right," I nodded, anticipation pleasantly warm in my stomach.

"Coolies!" Sky replied, grinning from ear to ear. She turned to me.

"Ho, boy, this is gonna be fun!"

Considering what would happen in the not so distant future, however, perhaps it would have been better had we died in the crash.

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**Well, there we go. As you can see, we suck at fanfics. We are thinking of going through and reposting the first four chapters, getting rid of both speeling mistakes and plot holes.**

**In fact, we think we'll go do that now-ish.**

**See you next time! And review, please. We checked. We have over 500 hits, but only fourteen reviews. We could call that slack, but that'd be mean to our reviewers! C'mon, it doesn't take that much effort to press that little button and type a few words. Pwease?**

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